By TOM HAYES

 

NATIONALS Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron has lashed out at the state government, with the belief that regional roads will be left to ruin, after Regional Roads Victoria was absorbed under the banner of Transport Victoria.

“By dumping Regional Roads Victoria, Labor has sent a clear message that it was never serious about improving roads and road safety for regional Victorians,” Mr Cameron said.

“There are several critical road projects across the Latrobe Valley that have stalled under Labor, and now we’re left with the impression they’ve been abandoned altogether.”

Regional Roads Victoria was established in 2018 as a dedicated country roads division of VicRoads. The next year, VicRoads and Public Transport Victoria came together in the new Department of Transport, which became the Department of Transport and Planning.

The state government confirms that Regional Roads Victoria will remain the same with the same number of dedicated regional staff working to deliver the same standards of work.

“While the Liberals and Nationals waste their time with Facebook conspiracies, we’re getting on with delivering record investment to maintain regional Victorian roads,” a state government spokesperson said.

“We have the same number of dedicated staff working as part of Transport Victoria to deliver our record $6.6 billion investment into maintaining our roads.”

Mr Cameron claims the state government is “under spending” on roads across regional Victoria and has been backed up by Nationals Member for Gippsland South and Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien.

“Successive years of budget cuts have left our roads in a dire state and reductions in the resurfacing and rehabilitation program will only see our roads get worse in the future,” Mr O’Brien said last month.

“Re-sealing protects the road network against water penetration that causes potholes and damaged roads.

“Not surprisingly, the government has confirmed that almost 1200 Victorians have lodged claims for damage caused by dodgy roads last financial year alone.”

A release from Mr O’Brien says state budget papers indicate the area of road subject to resurfacing or rehabilitation has fallen from nine million square metres two years ago to just three million this financial year.

“These figures just highlight that drastic budget cuts that have seen our roads deteriorate dramatically over the past few years to a point where the government’s own survey last year revealed 91 per cent of roads were in poor or very poor condition,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Mega city projects have blown out by more than $40 billion, and it’s the taxpayers who wear the costs, and they’ll wear the costs again of Regional Roads Victoria shutting down,” Mr Cameron added.

“Road maintenance funding is 16 per cent less than it was in 2020 and the amount of road resurfacing works this year will drop by two thirds.

“The chronic under spending across regional Victoria is having dire consequences on our roads, and ultimately the safety of regional Victorians is being compromised.”

The state government confirmed it will invest a record $964 million into state roads this year, the majority of those being regional roads, exceeding the yearly average of $493 million under the previous government.

The state government says recent maintenance programs have been focused on rebuilding and strengthening roads damaged by floods and extreme rainfall.

“It would be disingenuous of the Liberals and Nationals to ignore the unprecedented damage repeated flooding and above-average rainfall has caused to our roads,” a state government spokesperson said.

“Now works to completely rebuild our most flood-damaged roads is complete, resurfacing levels will significantly increase during the upcoming maintenance season.”

Resurfacing was labelled as the state government’s least intensive form of road maintenance, however just one element of the broader program, and the performance measures raised did not capture the primary focus of last year’s project which was major patching.

As a result, resurfacing targets were lower during the last financial year, and efforts focused on rehabilitating flooded roads, according to the state government.

In the previous financial year, the state government invested a total of $770 million to maintain the state’s road assets.

Federal Member for Gippsland, Darren Chester also had the state government on blast, accusing state Roads Minister Melissa Horne and Federal Minister for Transport, Catherine King of taking credit for funding $9.7 million to deliver the McEacharn Street (Bairnsdale) roundabout, when the project was supposedly funded in April 2020.

“They are so arrogant and think we are too stupid to remember the money has already been announced. We need less spin and more action from these two ministers,” Mr Chester said.

“The roundabout was fully funded in 2020 under the previous Coalition government, and we have waited four years because this incompetent state government hasn’t started work.”

When announcing the additional funding, Minister King noted that the federal government was investing in Bairnsdale’s road network for locals and tourists, stating: “we are working with the Victorian government on these vital improvements that will support Gippsland’s growth”.

Mr Chester said Minister King was being “loose with the truth” and that the federal government hadn’t funded a single major transport project in Gippsland since it was elected in 2022.

“All of the projects, including the Princes Highway duplication between Traralgon and Sale, were fully funded under the Coalition, and we’re still waiting for this incompetent Minister to build a single transport or regional development project anywhere in Gippsland,” Mr Chester said.

The state government denied these claims, saying it clearly states: “a new dual-lane roundabout will be built at the intersection of the Princes Highway East and McEacharn Street, with the Australian government fully funding the $9.73 million project”.

The project was funded under the federal government’s $316.3 million Princes Highway Corridor in Victoria, according to the state government.