Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2023–24 Budget Estimates

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (10:28): I rise today to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee 2023–24 budget estimates report, which was tabled in October last year, and what a source of information that is. I thank PAEC for the work that they have done. I am going to limit my comments today to chapter 6 on the Department of Transport and Planning and in particular 6.6, ‘Roads and road safety: key issues’, which goes then into road maintenance and repairs. This is something where I feel like a broken record, and it is almost embarrassing when I get introduced in my electorate as the woman who does not give up on potholes, because that is what I seem to do all the time. Whilst I am not giving up on it, I think the government has given up on it. The government’s approach to rural and regional roads is one that is really appalling, and I think that they can do so much better in this regard.

One of the things that have come up recently and do get highlighted through the reports is the extra damage that is caused by floods, and there has been no doubt in my electorate – in October 2022 we had pretty devastating floods. Again just recently the flood event in January cut off a lot of roads, and there was a lot of water over the roads. Yes, it does damage the road surfaces. But what the government forgets, and what is highlighted in the PAEC reports, is the fact that the funding has been cut, because over years – absolute years – there has been a lack of investment into regional roads. These potholes, these shoulders that were not graded and these surfaces that are crumbling and failing on so many roads and highways were there well before the floods. Now they are made a little bit worse. What needs to be done, the extent of the repairs, is going to be even greater. I really condemn the government for their lack of support for regional Victoria in this area particularly.

I can drive throughout my electorate and on nearly every VicRoads-managed road there are issues. The cash-strapped councils, in particular the Murrindindi and Mansfield councils, do not have a strong revenue base. They do not have the ability to raise lots of money like in the city, and they have enormous networks of roads and bridges – enormous – when you see the number of kilometres that they are responsible for. With their limited budget, they actually know how important roads are and they do the work in the main that is required.

I am constantly having to write to the government about their failures in roads. If you go from Yering to Yarra Glen – starting in the member for Evelyn’s patch – where we have got some dangerous corners, there are accidents all the time at one particular corner. If you look at that piece of road, it is dreadful. The surface is so uneven because potholes are continually having to be repaired. Then you drive from Yarra Glen to Yea on the Melba Highway, and particularly from Castella to Yea the patch works are dreadful. There is work that has been done. I understand that the minister visited Yea the other day, but I did hear on the grapevine that she did not go up the Melba Highway. I have been calling for her for a very long time to drive the Melba Highway. I understand that she did not take that route, but I would love to be corrected, because I really hope that she did see it.

As you head towards Molesworth and Cathkin you see the surface failures there, and at Maindample on the way to Mansfield as you go from the Melba Highway to the Goulburn Valley Highway to the Maroondah Highway through to Mansfield. All of these areas are very heavily patronised. We have trucks. It is a major freight route, that route between Melbourne and the Hume Freeway via Benalla. That has not had the investment. The Black Spur is looking a little bit better because it is well known as a windy, dangerous road, but then we have down in the Yarra Ranges Don Road, the area between the Warburton Highway at the pub at Launching Place through to the township of Don Valley. It is a small section. It is only a couple kilometres long, but it is riddled with potholes and uneven surfaces and roadsides. There is so much that the government needs to do. I think the PAEC report that has been put forward indicates their failures in road repairs and road maintenance, and I do hope that the next budget turns that around and we do get better investment in country roads, because that is what we need.