Wednesday, 7 February 2024

South-West Coast electorate roads

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (09:44): I rise in the first sitting week to raise the dreadful state of Victorian roads. Yes, just like last year and many before that, I am speaking about the downright dangerous conditions of regional roads. Lives are lost in South-West Coast and lives are lost in Victoria because of Labor’s refusal to act. It is not too much to expect that regional roads are as good as those in the city. South-West Coast has a thriving agricultural sector, ensuring that right across the state Victorians have high-quality beef, lamb, milk and much more, yet this does not come without its challenges. Milk tankers are 2½ times more likely to crash than regular trucks. Despite the higher risk and growing regional road toll, South-West Coast has some of the worst roads in the state, which simply would not be acceptable in Melbourne.

At the last state election, the Labor candidate for South-West Coast liked to claim that we suffered from ‘the tyranny of distance and high rainfall’. Warrnambool’s yearly rainfall is roughly one-third of that in Cairns, yet when I was there last year I did not see crumbling roads. Labor’s quality control is lacking, and it is regional Victorians who are paying the price with substandard and quite frankly unacceptable road conditions. It is not the tyranny of distance or rainfall as Labor claims, it is the mismanagement by Victorian Labor that has left our roads crumbling. South-West Coast’s agricultural sector puts food on the table and provides products and everyday items like aluminium cans, and our ports act as the gateway to the world. It is time Labor came down here and had a look at the roads firsthand. I have asked this in Parliament previously, and I will not rest until the minister and the Premier come and see for themselves and finally act.