News

Roads | January 10, 2025

Labor must fund Western Highway duplication

The Nationals’ Member for Lowan, Emma Kealy is again taking the Allan Labor Government to task over its failure to fund the Western Highway duplication after yet another serious crash on the road this week.

A car and a truck collided on the highway at Buangor late Wednesday afternoon, with the truck tipping onto its side and blocking both lanes of the highway.

Ms Kealy said while thankfully those involved escaped with non-life-threatening injuries, the incident again highlighted the need for the crucial duplication of the highway between Buangor to Stawell to be completed without delay.

“Duplication started in 2013 under a Liberal-National state government and was due to be finished in 2016. All these years later, only 55 kilometres of the duplication west of Ballarat has been completed,” she said.

“In the 10 years that Labor has been in government there have been 13 fatalities on the highway between Buangor and Stawell, and more than 120 crashes.

“But year after year – despite constant calls from the community to upgrade the road and make it safer – Labor refuses to fund the rest of the duplication to Stawell, instead preferring to waste billions of dollars on projects in Melbourne that provide no benefit to regional communities and only send our state further into debt.

“Our communities need to know that they can rely on our roads to get safely to work, school, sporting pursuits or other activities, but instead they are forced to drive on sub-standard roads riddled with potholes and crumbling edges.

“That is the legacy that Labor has in this state – contempt for regional Victorians and complete mismanagement of the state’s roads and finances, and we are all paying the price.”

Ms Kealy said the condition of the Western Highway had become increasingly dire in recent years, with permanent speed reductions in place in some areas because the surface is so dangerous.

“The Western Highway is the second-busiest highway in Australia, with about 7000 vehicles travelling along the road every day,” she said.

“It is absolutely critical that the road is safe. Labor must listen to the local community and every motorist who travels along the Western Highway and ensure the duplication between Buangor and Stawell is funded as a matter of urgency.”