The Nationals’ Member for Lowan, Emma Kealy, has shamed the Allan Labor Government for spruiking an annual “road maintenance blitz” after yet another year of letting our roads disintegrate.
Ms Kealy said the government announced a blitz every year around this time, promising thousands of projects to fix damaged roads across the state, but every year its promises proved empty.
“If seeing is believing, Labor’s latest announcement is as hollow as some of the gaping holes in our roads,’ she said.
“Every day our communities are forced to keep travelling on pothole-riddled roads with crumbling edges, even on major arterials like the Western Highway.
“All Labor’s fanfare about ‘rebuilding and repairing’ and ‘record investment’ can’t hide what everyone in our community knows – our roads are worse than ever.”
Ms Kealy said budget figures showed the true reality, with Labor cutting major road patching targets by 93 per cent in regional Victoria, and the total area of road due to be rehabilitated or resurfaced across regional areas set to drop 14 per cent this year.
Parliamentary Budget Office reports also show that, on average in the 10 years to 2024, the Allan Labor Government spent less per kilometre on road maintenance than both New South Wales and Queensland.
“When you combine these cuts with $48 billion in cost blowouts on metropolitan projects, it’s no wonder our roads are in such a perilous state,” Ms Kealy said.
“Jacinta Allan promised to be a premier for regional Victorians, yet two years into the job it is rural and regional communities who continue to be hit hardest by her government’s mismanagement of our state.
“Labor is all spin and no substance when it comes to our roads, and it’s an absolute insult to rural and regional communities who deserve to be able to safely travel to work, school, sport, medical appointments and other activities.
“Labor can’t manage money and can’t manage our roads, and Victorians are paying the price.”