Council
17 October, 2024
Road funding left far too late, MP says
MEMBER for South West Coast Roma Britnell has hit out at the Victorian Government’s newly unveiled road maintenance blitz as “too little, too late”.
The Victorian Government unveiled a $964 million maintenance blitz last week, with improvements coming to key sections of road across the region including long-awaited repairs to Terang-Mortlake Road.
However, Ms Britnell was among the members of the opposition to slam the funding as what she described as a “disguised announcement”.
She said the funding was little more than a reannouncement of the existing maintenance funding allocated as part of the 2024/25 Victorian Budget.
Ms Britnell also said the $675 million figure for regional road maintenance, as part of the $964 million blitz, was still 16 per cent less than it was in 2020.
“I have raised concerns about the woeful state of our roads in parliament on numerous occasions - this announcement is too little, too late,” she said.
“It attempts to mask reduced spending and neglect of our roads, which has led to deterioration to a dangerous level.
“Cuts to the maintenance budget in recent years have led to dramatic deterioration of our roads – they are riddled with potholes, rutted, cracked and breaking up right across the state.
“Having raised the state of local roads such as the Terang-Mortlake Road in Parliament, I am relieved to see that it has been included for works.”
Ms Britnell said shortcomings in both funding levels and the efficiency in the rollout of repairs has seen the state of roads continue to deteriorate, which was creating an unsafe environment for drivers across the region.
“The Allan Government has persistently blamed major flooding over the last two years for worsening conditions on Victoria’s roads,” she said.
“That’s a complete cop out”.
“Labor can’t manage money and Victorians are paying the price through roads that are less safe and in worse condition.
“Successive years of budget cuts have left our roads in a dire state and now Labor is turning its back on important safety upgrades.”
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