Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Motions

Road maintenance

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (15:48): I move:

That this house notes that:

(1) under the Allan Labor government Victoria has some of the worst road conditions in the country;

(2) failure to repair roads in a timely manner has caused Victoria’s road network to crumble;

(3) the Allan Labor government announced an investment of $964 million to repair Victorian roads in the 2024–25 state budget;

(4) 70 per cent of this investment, being $675 million, will be specifically spent on repairing roads in regional Victoria;

(5) there is anecdotal evidence that previous work to repair Victorian roads has been substandard, with many roads needing new repairs after only a short period of time;

and calls on the government to ensure that repairs undertaken during this latest road repair blitz are of the highest quality and standard to ensure that delivering Victorians world-standard road infrastructure.

This is a very important motion as regional Victoria’s road network is most definitely one of the worst, if not the worst, in the country. Potholes, crumbling uneven surfaces and rutting are just some of the issues facing regional Victorians every single day. Victorian road authorities are filling almost 700 potholes per day across the state. This equates to almost nine potholes per kilometre of road in Victoria.

In the 2023–24 financial year 1200 motorists made claims for damages to their vehicles. When you consider that repairs for damages must be over $1400 to be able to make such a claim, this number is just a fraction of motorists who have had to pay to repair their vehicles. Costs for motorists are only going up and up. From increases to fuel taxes, registration and TAC and maintenance costs, Victorians are struggling under the crippling costs of just getting around. The cost of repairs to damage caused by poorly maintained roads is something that many Victorians simply cannot afford in this cost-of-living crisis.

On 30 July this year the RACV released results from its annual road safety survey, and they were damning. Sixty-four per cent of respondents identified potholes and poor road conditions as their top concern. In fact all the roads of top concern in this survey are in my electorate of Northern Victoria: the Melba Highway, the Goulburn Valley Highway, Tylden-Woodend Road, Kilmore Road and the intersection of the Midland Highway and Howard Street in Epsom. This is disgraceful. Regional Victorians are being treated like second-class citizens in this state. It seems like our city-centric government has forgotten that they govern the whole state, not just the metro area. With blowouts on major metro projects, including the Suburban Rail Loop and Metro Tunnel, totalling at least $41 billion, is it any wonder regional Victorians have lost faith in this government and their ability to manage the state budget? Yet the government blame everyone but themselves. They blame global factors, contractors, supply chain issues – anyone but themselves. The government cannot keep blaming the flood event of 2022 for the crumbling road network; it is the abject failure of the Allan Labor government to maintain the roads.

The crumbling road network comes down to poor workmanship in many cases. If the roads were fixed properly the first time, maintenance crews would not have to return to the same spot time and time again. I have seen evidence of potholes and crumbling sections of road that have been patched with nothing more than a small amount of hot mix. How could anyone think this is a viable and permanent solution? In most cases this is not even a good temporary fix as the patching is sloppy, lumpy and almost as rough as the problem it is meant to fix. These temporary fixes are not good enough. It makes one wonder where the almost $4 billion that was allocated over the last two financial years to fix our road network has gone, because it is clearly not on maintaining the road network in regional Victoria. Victorian road users deserve roads that are fixed properly. In many cases this might mean that the damaged section of road is completely ripped up and replaced from the base.

In my almost two years as a member for the Northern Victoria electorate I have lost count of the number of times the state of the roads has been raised in my office. I have heard so many of my colleagues in this place ask question after question: when will the roads be fixed? The frustration in the community is palpable. They want to know what is being done to make their roads safer. The road toll has only gone up in the past two years, and it leads one to wonder whether the abysmal road conditions have had at least some part to play in that. Another cry I have heard from my constituents and which I have heard Mrs McArthur raise on many occasions is: if our cars must be roadworthy, why aren’t our roads carworthy?

Wendy Lovell interjected.

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL: And Ms Lovell. That is a very good question I would like an answer to as well.

I will commend the government for finally announcing the funding of the $964 million they promised in the May budget and the allocation of 70 per cent of this budget to regional roads, but they must ensure that the job is done properly. It is the belief of many of my constituents that the government’s contractors are not doing their jobs properly. Contractors must be held accountable for subpar repairs. The Department of Transport and Planning, who are responsible for road maintenance, must ensure the contractors that they hire are fulfilling their responsibility to the Victorian taxpayer and are doing the job up to standard.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:53): I rise today to speak on the motion which has been put before us by Mrs Tyrrell. Indeed I acknowledge and thank her for bringing this matter to the chamber, and I do note her very sincere passion for the roads in Victoria and in particular in her electorate of the Northern Victoria Region.

At the outset I feel it would be remiss of me to make some remarks about road maintenance and road safety if I did not acknowledge what was a tragic and unthinkable disaster that happened not too far away from here in fact yesterday at Auburn South Primary School. It is quite frankly unfathomable to think, to consider or to put yourself in that situation, whether as a child, as a parent or as a teacher, and I join I am sure quite literally everybody in this place in sending my very best wishes, futile though they may be in light of what has happened. I acknowledge the remarks made by the Premier, the Minister for Education, the member for Hawthorn and indeed members of this place in the adjournment last night. There is quite literally nothing I can say to improve what has happened, but I think it is important that when we are discussing roads, and by extension road safety, we acknowledge that. I urge all Victorians to be as careful as they possibly can be behind the wheel.

The motion before us today concerns road maintenance. I acknowledge that there is indeed more to be done to deliver the road conditions that Victorians rightly expect. These last few years have been challenging, and it is true to say that the significant flood events and the extended rain events, including those substantial rainfall patterns which we have seen outside of the standard seasonal trends, have caused a build-up of wear on our roads beyond what is usually experienced.

Over the next nine months crews will complete thousands of projects on our network, ranging from road rehabilitation and resurfacing to patching potholes and maintaining bridges, traffic lights, signage and road infrastructure. This will be achieved through a $964 million investment in road maintenance, which I will discuss in more detail shortly and to which I also made a brief reference in the short form documents motion this morning. Last year much of the road maintenance work was focused on addressing those significantly damaged roads that were impacted by the successive flood events. In many cases they required more significant rebuilding and repairing than would normally be the case. With that work now complete, resurfacing and rehabilitation levels will significantly increase during the upcoming maintenance season.

As a road user myself, I can understand how there are frustrations with frequent sections requiring resurfacing. Unfortunately in some cases major road maintenance projects require extended periods of warmer and drier conditions in order to get the job done properly, which is why most work is done between now and May each year to ensure that the repairs last and we are getting the most efficient value from our maintenance budget. Undertaking such significant repairs outside this normal maintenance window would not only require comparatively higher costs per project but would be less effective as water can compromise the quality of those resurfacing and repair works, causing them to wear faster and require maintenance sooner.

To be clear, this is a government that is committed to delivering high-quality repairs and targeting them to where they are needed the most. At the heart of this motion from Mrs Tyrrell is a call for quality and substantive road maintenance, and I would say that this is what the government is working towards and is committed to delivering. We have averaged in our time in government $736 million a year in funding towards maintaining our roads, a figure that is substantially higher than when those opposite were last in power, which was $493 million a year. This year alone we are investing $964 million, which is the equivalent of $2.6 million a day, just on road repairs, upgrades and maintenance.

Notably, 70 per cent of this funding is going to be targeted towards works in regional Victoria, so substantial investment is being made to improve the quality of our roads outside Melbourne. Just a few weeks ago the Minister for Roads and Road Safety announced the start of the maintenance season. Crews are already getting out to rebuild, repair and resurface hundreds of kilometres of Victorian roads thanks to the largest single-year investment in road maintenance in Victoria’s history. This includes $770 million for our regular maintenance program, which is on par with our massive blitz last year, as well as additional funding to clean up flood damage. The blitz will target the state’s busiest travel and trade routes, with works set to be delivered on the Hume Freeway, Princes Highway, Western Highway, Goulburn Valley Highway, Echuca–Mooroopna road, Terang-Mortlake Road, Mornington-Flinders Road, Horsham–Kalkee road and Tylden-Woodend Road, which I believe was one of the roads Mrs Tyrrell mentioned. This is part of our massive $6.6 billion 10-year investment, which allows us to plan long term and futureproof regional roads to ensure that they are equipped to accommodate the state’s rapid growth and increasing freight demand.

Our roads have been taking a beating. The last few years have been some of the wettest in our state’s history, with consistently extreme weather events in 2022, 2023 and as recently as July this year. This means that the roads require more significant work to be repaired, maintained and resurfaced. Indeed last year, as I say, much of the funding allocated had to be focused on those roads most seriously impacted by floods. With flood events and out-of-season rain events being more frequent in the last three years, careful planning has been required to address these needs. This year’s blitz is focused on improving the overall quality of our road network for commuters. Among the myriad projects, you will see works progressing across our road network, including on Centre Road between Haughton Road and Police Road in Clayton and on Stud Road between Heatherton Road and Cheam Street in Dandenong North. This of course comes on top of our announcement in the budget this year to install pedestrian lights at Mcfees Road and Stud Road, and I acknowledge outgoing mayor of Greater Dandenong Lana Formoso’s very impressive campaign on that issue as well.

Works will progress on the Mornington-Flinders Road between Berry Road and Keys Road in Flinders and – this will absolutely interest you, Dr Heath – on Nar Nar Goon-Longwarry Road between Bunyip-Modella Road and Berry Lane in Bunyip and indeed also on the South Gippsland Highway between Mckittericks Road and Charltons Road in Stony Creek. I know that you will be very excited about those three projects in your region alone, Dr Heath, which are just a small smattering of the many, many projects being funded under this record investment.

I would also like to touch on the fact that the government is working with our local councils to deliver safer roads across Victoria. Councils operate, in kilometre terms, the largest amount of our state’s road network. Indeed for the recent Economy and Infrastructure Committee hearings on local government I along with others in this room – I believe Mr Mulholland and Mrs McArthur were there – had Cardinia Shire Council present to us. They are responsible for the maintenance of around 800 kilometres of sealed roads and around the same amount of unsealed roads in their local government area.

Just this week the $210 million Safe Local Roads and Streets program commenced. This program will provide $2 million to all 79 councils in Victoria to support the delivery of a wide range of safety improvements from now until 30 June 2027. That is to every single council, including indeed to Cardinia Shire Council, which I just mentioned. These projects are set to deliver new raised crossings and upgrades to kerbs, intersections, roundabouts and pedestrian islands. These local government authorities own and operate 87 per cent of Victoria’s roads, and about 40 per cent of road trauma occurs on council-managed roads every year.

We do know that we have more work to do, particularly in those regional areas. That is why the lion’s share of this funding will be going to regional Victoria, where those roads play a vital role in keeping communities connected and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of freight on the move. Our $6.6 billion strategy for road maintenance over 10 years allows us to target our investment more strategically over the long term. The 10-year funding approach means that we can have a maintenance program that delivers the right kinds of repairs to the highest standard where they are most needed. The multiyear approach also allows us to mitigate future risks in advance rather than waiting for funding certainty, meaning that spending is more efficient.

And returning to this year, I again acknowledge the frustrations that are very real and very valid out there, and for those reasons I have outlined I am very much looking forward to seeing that investment come through. We are committed to having the highest quality repairs where they are most needed, and the Allan Labor government’s delivery track record when it comes to this speaks for itself, in sharp contrast with the opposition.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (16:03): I am very glad to speak on this motion, and I thank Mrs Tyrrell for putting it forward to the chamber for discussion. For so many years, particularly this year, we have been calling on the government, desperate for the government to do something about the state of our roads. If you cannot fix the state of our roads – that is a core responsibility of government. This government will go and spend money on frivolous things like the $216 billion Suburban Rail Loop in the eastern suburbs, but it has not given proper consideration to our roads. We see this being a major concern all over the state. I cannot go to an event in my community without people telling me about the state of our roads, and I know it is probably the same for colleagues opposite.

Perhaps if you travel more around the inner city part of town, you do not get as many concerns, but I tell you what, it is a massive issue in the growth areas of Melbourne. So I was interested to read, with great fanfare and publicity, a front page recently of the Herald Sun announcing a so-called maintenance blitz to rebuild and repair the roads that Victorians depend on every single day. It looked like somewhat of a backflip from the government – that it had suddenly discovered that roads are an issue to everyday Victorians – but a little look into the further detail reveals the blitz is nothing more than a reannouncement of funding provided in the state budget in May. Labor have even padded out the funding numbers to include funding that was for flood recovery works.

It is the same spin they announce every year. We saw on the minister’s website on 14 October this year ‘Road maintenance blitz revs up across regional Victoria’. We also saw, on 11 October 2023, ‘Road maintenance blitz kicks off across regional Victoria’; they changed a couple of words. And then we saw, on 7 September 2022 – what do you reckon it was? – ‘Road maintenance blitz rolls out across regional Victoria’. So we had ‘revs up’, ‘kicks off’ and ‘rolls out’. Every single year, as night follows day, the government announces the same spin. But this one was revved up a little bit – the spin was definitely revved up – because they had the gall to pad it out with flood recovery funding to go to flood-damaged roads. It is just classic Labor spin, Of course we know they cannot manage money, and it is Victorian road users that are paying the price.

I hear directly from my constituents all the time regarding the state of our roads. The government have identified works on the Hume Freeway, the Princess Highway, the Western Highway and the Goulburn Valley Highway, but of course there is no money for the Northern Highway, which is of deep concern to residents in the outer northern suburbs. Unfortunately, Labor cannot manage money, and it is Victorian road users that are paying the price.

I want to focus particularly on the suburb of Wallan in my electorate, because anyone who has been to Wallan knows the state of the roads. I have had so many residents that have had multiple incidents a year. It is important to note that roads are a cost-of-living issue. If you are having to replace your tyres two to three times a year and spend that money out of pocket because it is under the threshold of about $1500 to $1700, the total cost ends up being more than that, but it is continuous individual instances. If roads got fixed as fast in Wallan as they did in Brunswick, they would actually be pretty happy, but they are not. The people of Wallan are forgotten about because they have got two very lazy local members that ignore residents’ concerns about potholes – residents like Dale Wise, who said:

The condition of the roads around Wallan are atrocious and even the new section of road on northern highway near the 7/11 is already breaking up.

These roads need to be heavy duty to cater for the high concentration of heavy vehicles using the northern highway to get into northern Victoria using Watson St to access the Fwy.

Bradley Baldwin from Wallan said:

As a new resident to the area, between the crime, and potholes, what a terrible choice to move here.

Robert Ellul says:

My car tyre exploded shortly after hitting the pothole outside the police station on Watson St.

I am already $185 out of pocket, and need to take the car to the mechanic to make sure there isn’t damage beyond the wheel and tyre.

I note that it has been marked as ‘temporarily’ 40kph for … 4 months now –

it is now about eight months –

but no action has been taken … to … return to 60kph.

Of course we know the government has across the entire state – including in Mrs McArthur’s electorate and Mrs Tyrrell and Ms Lovell’s electorates – reduced speed limits basically permanently, which is the same on Watson Street.

Angus Maclean from Wallan says:

I have lived in Hidden Valley Wallan for just over 10 years having moved to Australia in 2012 with my family from Scotland.

The lack of investment in roads and infrastructure has been shocking. Why are we expected to just put up with the condition of the roads?

I’ve started to look elsewhere to live …

Liz Garraway from Wallan says:

The Northern Hwy is a corridor … for hundreds of trucks and the roads in the area should be built to withstand these, as simple pothole repairs get ripped up by the passage of all the truck wheels.

Liz hits the nail on the head with her comments. The work is not done initially, and then patch-up works are not even enough. We saw in Wallan as well that last year my residents were forced, after sending heaps of Snap, Send, Solves and heaps of requests to VicRoads, to fill in a pothole on the Northern Highway with a garden bed saying ‘Wallan botanical gardens sponsored by VicRoads’. Do you know how long it took to get fixed after they put in a garden bed? About 24 hours. This is what my constituents are forced to go through in order to get their roads fixed.

This government has caused this cost-of-living issue that leads to people being thousands of dollars out of pocket each year because the government cannot manage money and it cannot repair our roads. It runs the same spin every year in regard to our roads. I am absolutely fed up. Members on this side of the chamber are absolutely fed up. All of the constituents I just read out have contacted the member for Kalkallo and the member for Yan Yean, and they have done nothing to address the crisis of potholes going on in Wallan. It is a disgrace – pothole after pothole. Residents are contacting me in desperation, having had their tyres explode and having had to repair their cars multiple times a year, but that side of the chamber could not care less. They could not care less about my community because they cannot manage money. Dodgy repair works get ripped up within days because the government has not invested in the state of the roads. It is a disgrace. My community are angry about it, so I am angry about it, because I actually listen to my community, unlike the Labor members of Parliament, who have forgotten that the good people of Wallan and Beveridge and places like that actually exist. They have forgotten to listen to their communities and act on their concerns. The state of the roads is a disgrace and so this government.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (16:13): I rise today to contribute to the discussion on Mrs Tyrrell’s motion before the house. This motion is regarding the road maintenance in the state of Victoria. The motion mentions that the Allan Labor government has invested $964 million into road maintenance in the state. We appreciate the acknowledgement that our government is doing the work to maintain safe roads across the state. The Allan Labor government is committed to the Victorian Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030. This strategy will halve road deaths and reduce serious injuries by 2030. The ultimate goal of the road safety strategy 2021–2030 is to eliminate road deaths by 2050. Make no mistake, this is a priority of the Allan Labor government.

We know that disproportionately injuries and fatalities on Victorian roads occur in the regions. Because of this, our government recognises the need for increased attention to be placed on regional roads and road safety outside metropolitan areas. Regional road management is an issue defined by factors often unique to the area. This can include weather events common to areas, erosion and other factors. In recent years we have seen an increase in floods across the state. Northern Victoria in particular was heavily affected by the floods. They impacted not just roads in the area but many other aspects of daily life. Put simply, the floods were devastating. I am sure anybody in this room who was in attendance at the Legislative Council’s regional sitting in Echuca would recall this. Situations like these are the exact reason why the Allan government has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to the maintenance of roads.

Our government has established a Safer Local Roads and Streets program, providing funding to numerous councils across the state to improve road safety. Regional councils selected in the second round in 2024 were East Gippsland. Gannawarra, Greater Geelong, Greater Shepparton, Loddon, Mansfield, Mildura, Moorabool, Swan Hill and Wyndham. All councils across the state will participate through the seven rounds by 2025. The program will provide a funding pool of $210 million in total, with up to $2 million allocated to each council to deliver upgrades on the highest risk roads, intersections and precincts in the regions by 2027, delivering infrastructure upgrades to keep the community safe, such as raised crossings, intersection upgrades, speed cushions, safer speeds, roundabouts and other vital safety improvements. For example, this year a busy Clifton Springs intersection in Greater Geelong saw safety improvements through this program’s funding with the installation of a roundabout and raised pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Bay Shore Avenue and Jetty Road as well as an adjusted, safer speed limit. This program demonstrates that our government is committed to delivering vital safety measures on our roads, and this intersection in the City of Greater Geelong is a single example of that.

Our road safety program has already established an extensive list of repairs right across the state, especially in regional areas. For example, in the Barwon south-west region a slew of works are set to go ahead, meaning safer roads out west. These works include the construction of flexible safety barriers and road surface treatments. Additionally, the investment in road infrastructure is designed to increase awareness of hazards and improve delineation. This have been occurring at the following locations: Hamilton Highway, Geelong to Inverleigh; Forrest-Apollo Bay Road and Skenes Creek Road in the Colac–Otway area; Geelong-Portarlington Road in Moolap; Corio–Waurn Ponds Road, known as the Melbourne road, from Broderick Road to Cox Road; Portland-Nelson Road in Mount Richmond; Portarlington–Queenscliff Road in Portarlington; and of course up and down the notorious Great Ocean Road. These areas are known for the safety risks posed on the roads at the best of times, with their unique winding roads and reduced space for full overtaking lanes. Because of this it is essential that the quality of roads in the area be monitored and maintained regularly.

The Safer Local Roads and Streets program allows for more funding to flow to an area like the Great Ocean Road and allows for more works to be done quicker and to a higher quality than we would see without the program. This is what the Allan Labor government offers to the people of Victoria, especially in the regions: safer roads for all Victorians. If you look at eastern Victoria on the map, we are improving safety and efficiency on the Great Alpine Road between Bruthen and Cobungra to provide a smoother and more reliable journey for road users in the area. Some of the works being done across these roads to improve quality and safety include shoulder construction and sealing, pavement repairs, upgrading existing safety barriers and installing new barriers, and finally several line marking improvements and the installation of guide posts, both to improve lane visibility. These improvements are currently underway and are set to be completed next year. Once these roadworks are over locals will be able to enjoy a much safer trip. It will not only be enjoyed by locals; of course the Great Alpine Road is one of the most popular tourist routes of Victoria, rivalling even the Great Ocean Road.

The works will have significantly positive impacts on agriculture in eastern and northern Victoria. Repairs happening have included several important repairs to bridges, which pose their own unique challenges to road maintenance teams. We have replaced the bridge over the Latrobe River on Tyers Road between Traralgon and Tyers, with the installation of barriers and curve works as well as an 80-kilometre speed limit, ensuring increased motorist safety over the bridge. In the northern region of Victoria we are strengthening McCoys Bridge on the Murray Valley Highway over the Goulburn River between Wyuna and Kotupna. McCoys Bridge is a key thoroughfare for the Murray Valley Highway and the surrounding areas. To this end it is essential that McCoys Bridge be maintained and kept at the highest quality a bridge can be. That is exactly what the Allan Labor government has committed to with the strengthening of McCoys Bridge. This essential work will allow this critical transport link to continue to operate for years to come. During the October 2022 floods the bridge was subjected to fast-moving, powerful floodwaters. Unfortunately, the road had to be closed for several weeks to determine if the bridge was damaged and could be safely reopened.

The impacts of natural disasters and extreme weather events are an unfortunate inevitability in our state, and these will impact the quality of our roads as they occur, whether they are flooding events, bushfires or storms. As such, the Allan Labor government recognises the need for regular maintenance programs. We cannot repair a road once and expect it to suffice for decades to come. If we wish to achieve zero road deaths by 2050, we need to implement a continuous plan for road safety, and we most certainly have done so through the Victorian Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030, through the safer local roads and streets program and through comprehensive and numerous maintenance programs that the government has embarked upon throughout the years.

On the topic of northern Victoria, we have also gone to repair sections of the Midland Highway at Mooroopna that required major patching works. Passing by Shepparton, the Midland Highway is an important connecting road for the regional Victoria road network. The Midland Highway passes through major regional cities such as Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Shepparton, and it terminates in Mansfield, stretching from the Princes Highway out west to the Maroondah Highway in the east. I am saying this to illustrate just how important the quality of the Midland Highway is. These maintenance works, completed earlier this year, addressed damaged sections of the roads.

These workers have ensured safer roads for northern Victoria, and I am sure everyone in this chamber can appreciate that this is a topic very close to me. As many of you know, I was the secretary of the Transport Workers’ Union, Victoria and Tasmania branch, prior to becoming a member of the Legislative Council. Despite coming to the union from the aviation industry, it did not take long to learn just how dangerous the roads can be for transport workers. In 2023 we lost over 200 truck drivers on the road, and this is not acceptable. This is why our government is absolutely dedicated to improving our road safety. Working in the union, I spent years fighting for protections for truck drivers on our roads. For truck drivers, the roads are their office. Every worker should be safe in their place of employment, and in this context this means ensuring that our roads are the best quality they can be. These maintenance blitzes from the Allan Labor government are achieving just that. An investment of $956 million ensures that everyone who uses the road for personal and professional reasons can be confident they are using safe roads.

As a final point, I would like to acknowledge the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Minister Horne in the other place, for her unwavering commitment to improving Victoria’s roads. Minister Horne is undeniably dedicated to her ministerial roles and road safety, and these maintenance programs that our government has implemented are no exception to this commitment. She is the minister that has presided over the regional roads blitz of recent years, and I am confident that with Minister Horne at the helm we can look forward to a Victoria with world-class road networks, regardless of how regional the roads are. Put simply, our Minister for Roads and Road Safety and the Allan Labor government as a whole are delivering on road maintenance and will continue to do so over the years to come.

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (16:23): Thank you very much to Mrs Tyrrell from the Northern Victoria Region for bringing this motion to the house. She is quite right that under the Labor government in Victoria we have, she says, some of the worst road conditions – I would say the worst road conditions – in the country. There is no question about it. All the anecdotal evidence from our constituents that come from South Australia or New South Wales tells us how good those roads are. The minute you hit the border and you are across in Victoria, you are likely to do a tyre or a wheel.

We have just heard from Mr Berger, and he has just left unfortunately. He was secretary of the Transport Workers’ Union. He said, ‘Every worker should be safe’ – no, every motorist should be safe. Every child in a school bus should be safe. Every farmer driving their truck or tractor should be safe. Every producer that is carting goods from A to B should be safe. We need everybody to be safe on the roads.

He mentioned wire rope barriers. They are lying wrecked in most places, not repaired. Fortunately, it does not seem that they are rolling out any more of that nonsense, which cost about a billion dollars – a complete waste of money.

Labor has cut $230 million from road safety programs over the past two years, including a $150 million reduction in the TAC-funded safe system road infrastructure program and an $81 million shortfall in the TAC marketing and road safety budget. Do not come in here and talk about road safety expenditure; you have just cut it all. Since 2020 resurfacing and rehabilitation works have plummeted by more 65 per cent on regional roads and funding for road maintenance has dropped by 45 per cent. Do not talk about fixing roads; you have just stopped doing it. Last year a government survey found – a government survey, mind you – that 91 per cent of roads were in a poor or very poor state. What an indictment.

Labor, under the cover of darkness, has quietly axed Regional Roads Victoria, the agency it set up within VicRoads in 2018 as a dedicated country roads body to make sure regional communities had the safe and reliable roads they deserve – an honourable objective, but they have just ditched it. The organisation is gone. The government has set up a review process – yet another review; they are forever looking in the mirror, this government – to begin the sale of SprayLine Road Surfaces, the last remaining government-owned road maintenance firm. They are selling it off. Labor has skimmed 8.5 per cent, or $1.57 million, off a federal black spot program funding allocation for project and program management and departmental on-costs. What?

One of my constituents – he writes too many of us, including the minister – Mr Jason Bendeich of Hamilton continually compiles lists. He sent one recently of the top-10 worst roads in south-west Victoria that he travels on regularly. They are the Coleraine-Edenhope Road lower sections closer to Coleraine; the Glenelg Highway between Coleraine and Casterton, one of the worst roads in the state – absolutely deplorable; Glenelg Highway east of Glenthompson, which was promised to be rebuilt in 2018 – we are all still waiting; Maroona-Glenthompson Road between Glenthompson and Maroona, with an emphasis on upper sections between Willaura and Glenthompson; Mackinnons Bridge Road at Noorat to the A1 at Noorat East; Princess Highway, A1, Warrnambool to Port Fairy – it is a disgrace; Princess Highway, A1, between Portland and Heywood; Henty Highway, A200, between Hamilton and Branxholme; Henty Highway, A200, between Hamilton and Cavendish; and the Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road between Heywood and Hawkesdale South. That is only a sample of a few roads that this one constituent has produced a list of.

In May 2023 I brought a roads motion to this place to cause the Economy and Infrastructure Committee to inquire into the state of Victorian roads, and disgracefully it was rejected in this chamber by those on the other side and some of those characters on the crossbench over there. That was appalling, because what it was trying to do was set up an inquiry to recognise the poor state of Victoria’s roads, especially in rural and regional areas, and note the consequences of damaged road surfaces, including the safety of all road users and the economic and environmental damage caused by repeated repairs to vehicles such conditions make inevitable. It would have required the Economy and Infrastructure Committee to inquire into, consider and report by February 2024 – of course that never happened – on the state of Victoria’s roads, including but not limited to the budgetary resources dedicated to road construction and repairs in Victoria, with comparison to national and international experience; the methods and standards of design, construction and maintenance of road pavement and surfacing, with comparison to national and international experience; and also the value for money achieved by the existing Victorian system of delivering road surface construction and maintenance, including the tendering process, contract requirements including technical specifications of works, quality control and project assessment, the longer term ongoing assessment of road surface quality and the clawback mechanisms for inadequate quality of delivered work. Of course that did not happen, but it should have. We should have had a wholesome inquiry into how we could build roads better so that we do not have to maintain them as we do so regularly.

Given the gravity of the issue, repair costs and roadwork delays but also the lives of people in Victoria, we should have had it. I think everyone in this house will agree, at least those that drive in Victoria and outside the tram tracks, that the condition of our roads is one of the most important things we can spend time and resources debating here. In fact it is probably one of the things that most of us have the most inquiries about. It affects people every day in time lost to roadworks and delays, in repair costs to vehicles and, tragically, in the consequences of the accidents, injuries and deaths which occur all too frequently because of our appalling roads.

Road conditions really matter. Some of you may have heard or read some time ago the 3AW interview in which Victoria Police assistant commissioner, road policing command, Glenn Weir made clear that the state of the roads was a repeated routine factor investigated by his officers in serious and fatal traffic accidents. Of course there are other causes. But the state of the roads, particularly the collapsed roadsides and verges, is one of the biggest dangers, and reducing speed limits and blaming driver behaviour, this government’s favourite tactics, cannot disguise the reality. All of this is despite the fact that Treasurer Pallas told me in a Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing in 2022 that potholes only occur in Liberal Party propaganda. How outrageous.

The subject also deserves scrutiny from a taxpayer value-for-money angle when we consider the vast sums spent on our road network. For local councils across Victoria with hundreds of thousands of kilometres to maintain it is often the biggest line item. At a state level billions are spent on the construction and maintenance of our highways and byways.

In my view we should have had an inquiry. We definitely need one. The design and specification of roads is vitally important, and we need to look at that. As I have outlined, we absolutely need a proper investigation as to how we can have better roads in this state, safer roads, roads that are reliable, roads that do not have to be repaired just a few months after they are repaired and they are built. My toaster has got a better guarantee than most of the roads in Victoria. There seems to be no caveat on contractors to build a road that lasts. They are absolutely shocking, and we need to do something about it. I commend Mrs Tyrrell for the motion, and we should all get behind better roads.

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:33): After 10 years of Labor not only do we have record debt, an inadequate healthcare system, a housing crisis and a cost-of-living crisis but also we are seeing roads crumble around us. Roads in Victoria are in a dire state, particularly in regional Victoria. The government’s road maintenance budget has been slashed, with $680 million allocated in 2024–25, which is a 16 per cent decrease from 2020. Despite frequent claims of a maintenance blitz, these efforts are insufficient to address the severely deteriorating roads. The government has blamed, like Mrs Tyrrell said, excessive rainfall and floods for poor road conditions. But this excuse does not hold up when we look at long-term rainfall data across Victoria. Regional roads critical for heavy vehicle transportation have been ranked the worst in the nation. In 2024 only 3 million square metres of roads were resurfaced compared to 9 million square metres in 2022, highlighting the huge decline in infrastructure investment, and poor quality in our roads has a direct impact on safety.

Data from the TAC show 97 deaths on regional roads this year, which is 24 more, tragically, than the same time last year and 11 more than the five-year average. The Australian Road Safety Foundation reports that about two-thirds of national road deaths occur on rural and regional roads. These fatality rates highlight the government’s failure to prioritise roads and the safety of regional Victorians. In a move that underscores the government’s disregard for regional road safety, Regional Roads Victoria has been disbanded. It is absolutely devastating. Documents obtained under freedom of information reveal that the government diverted $1.5 million from a federal black spot program that was meant to improve safety on regional roads. This is a tragedy.

In my region Pakenham has experienced a huge population boom over the past decade, but the infrastructure investment has not kept up, and it is beginning to show everywhere. McGregor Road in Pakenham is severely congested, with residents struggling to navigate the area, especially the intersections at Henty Street and Rogers Street, where locals have been calling for traffic lights for a very long time. Residents along with Cardinia council have been campaigning for traffic lights at the Toomuc Valley Road and Princes Highway intersection, which is near the main entrance to Beaconhills College; however, the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) has stated that it has no plans whatsoever to upgrade this intersection. I was there the other day with some parents from the school after they invited me down to watch the incredible congestion and how people just cannot get across the intersection there. It is becoming more and more dangerous, and they are worried about an accident happening.

Similarly the Lang Lang bypass remains completely unresolved, despite one truck passing through the main street every minute. This poses a significant risk, particularly after and before school, when there are children around. I know Ms Bath has been down there recently. This is something that they have been campaigning for for a very long time. That road is not made for trucks at the volume they are seeing. A truck driver said to me recently at a community meeting that every morning there are trucks mounting the roundabouts and all of the edges are chipped off because the infrastructure there is not fit for purpose and the sides of the road are crumbling.

In the Mount Dandenong area the high-traffic Mount Dandenong Tourist Road remains neglected, with no upgrade plans despite growing safety concerns. There has been a huge amount of damage and cars are being damaged. In the 2022–23 financial year the DTP received 1532 claims for property damage due to road defects, yet only one claim, worth under $3000, was paid out. Among the rejected claims was that of 76-year-old Bernard Butler, who sustained over $3000 worth of car damage on two separate occasions due to the poor conditions of the road. Additionally, a truck company reported that its maintenance costs had risen by one-third due to the deterioration of roads. This is unacceptable.

There was a very interesting road quality survey done recently by the RACV, which I am sure members know about. According to that data 64 per cent of respondents identified poor road quality and potholes as their main concern, up from 46 per cent in 2021. The worst affected roads in the survey included Bass Highway in my region between Jam Jerrup and Leongatha, Great Alpine Road between Bairnsdale and Wangaratta, Princes Highway between Stratford and Bairnsdale, and Phillip Island Road. These areas are just crumbling. I do not want another car damaged, but more importantly, I do not want somebody hurt or a life lost.

The Labor government were elected to serve people, but they seem to have gone on with their pet projects rather than sticking to the core business of what they are meant to do and what they are failing at. It is the state government’s responsibility to maintain schools, hospitals, roads, railways, public transport and prisons – all areas which they are absolutely failing in. There are two people across there, and I am sure right now the others are probably out celebrating some other project that nobody asked for while our roads are absolutely crumbling. This government have become so distracted with vanity projects that they have forgotten their core business. I was listening to a speech before, and it seems that sometimes some people in the government see themselves more as philanthropists that are bestowing money on somebody who is very lucky, rather than managing taxpayer dollars to maintain our roads, schools and health care system and do what they are meant to do.

Residents in towns like Traralgon and Moe have been actively campaigning for road improvements to dangerous intersections like Bank Street in Traralgon and the Waterloo Road–Lloyd Street level crossing in Moe. However, progress has been a very slow, and the communities feel really neglected. So I commend Mrs Tyrrell on raising this motion. I hope that the government will stop their self-praise and celebration for a minute and take note of what it really is that Victorians need and what their core business is and return to that. I commend this motion to the house.

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (16:41): I will just say a few words in relation to Mrs Tyrrell’s motion 624 on the notice paper today. Certainly as National Party members in Gippsland the state of the roads is not foreign to us. Indeed my colleague and the Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety Danny O’Brien has been doing a power of work in this space. Of course not only does it capture media attention, but it is often the most common conversation in our supermarkets, our streets, our pubs and indeed our electorate offices. I commend him for the work he is doing. In fact many of the statistics that we on this side have been reading in and communicating to the house have been because of Danny O’Brien’s investigative powers and just actual common sense about things.

One of the points I would like first to put on the record is that in Mrs Tyrrell’s motion she made reference to $675 million in relation to the budget. This is just in effect normal budget maintenance. The government came out a few weeks ago talking about the blitz, and it made it into the papers how important this blitz is. It is just normal budget maintenance funding. There is nothing overly amazing about this. The amazing thing is how the government can stand up in here week after week, month after month, and make cuts to our budget and cuts to road maintenance. They stand here as if, as we have just heard, they are bestowing some level of kindness.

We know that the Parliamentary Budget Office recently produced a document, and that document was requested by the Leader of the Nationals Peter Walsh. That document very clearly shows that the independent Parliamentary Budget Office forensically analysed infrastructure funding across the state and came to the point that the regional Victorian population is 25 per cent of the overall state population while regional infrastructure spend, again, in this year’s budget was 13 per cent of the infrastructure spend. That goes off the back of 12 per cent the previous year and about 13 per cent the year previous to that.

What we are seeing consistently and always is that this Labor government short-changes and shafts regional people. It is very concerning to know and it has often been the case that country people die on country roads, city people die on country roads and country roads are places that are over-represented in deaths on our roads. There has been an increase on last year in deaths on our roads. If you asked anybody in this place or anybody in a supermarket down the street in your home town or region whether they knew somebody in their family circle or friendship circle who died on the roads, I am sure that they would, very sadly, say yes. There are too many people dying on our roads, and it is incumbent on this government to actually take action on that. This government has been in for nine years. This government is continuing to cut road maintenance budgets.

Let us just look at some of the facts, and I will put on record some of the hard work that Mr O’Brien has been doing. Victoria’s road maintenance budget remains 16 per cent below what it was in 2020 – a cut. The budget papers reveal that there is a 96 per cent reduction in the level of maintenance undertaken on regional roads in 2023 and 2024. Labor will reduce the area resurfaced or rehabilitated statewide by 75 per cent in the next year compared to two years ago. There is nothing joyful about these statistics; there is only pain, concern, crumbling surfaces and potholes. In 2023–24 the government reduced spending on its resurfacing contracts across the state by 81 per cent, falling from $200 million to around $37 million. These are cuts. And why? Because they are pouring the money into the black hole which is the Big Build or those builds in central Melbourne that are siphoning off great loads of taxpayer funds, so we get to pay for it.

Nearly 400 kilometres of roads are speed-reduced – there is a reduction. Rather than fixing the roads, they slap speed-reduced signs on them. There are occasions definitely where there need to be reductions, and we support those. In fact there was one only recently that many in the community near my home town had been calling for, on the south side of Leongatha. It had community consultation. There was nothing majorly wrong with potholes there, but the speed limit needed to be reduced. But where the government is so lazy and so arrogant and so tardy that it cannot be bothered funding road maintenance properly, it just cuts the speed requirements there. It is a gross level of negligence.

We heard also from Mrs Tyrrell that almost 2000 people have lodged claims for vehicle damage due to road surfaces in the past three years. There was a survey by the RACV, and I think there were 7000 people who provided feedback to the RACV. Indeed there are some shockers of roads, and unsurprisingly many of them are in Eastern Victoria Region. I know Dr Heath just read many of them into Hansard, so I thank her for doing that. What were the top issues – this is for the RACV investigation and survey. Sixty-four per cent of the participants identified the issue of how safe the roads are. Sixty-four per cent said potholes and road conditions were of top concern; 32 per cent, the dangerous behaviours of other drivers, and that is a whole discussion and a topic on its own, a very important topic; 29 per cent, the narrowing of lanes; and 26 per cent, road intersection safety issues. We heard again that in the Latrobe Valley the Bank Street intersection is still waiting. I can recall raising it in Parliament in about 2016, and they are still waiting. At the time I remember the minister came over and said, ‘Look, we’ve just got a couple of things, and we’ve got some funding there.’ Well, they are still waiting for that, come 2026.

Others in the survey cited limited overtaking opportunities. It is very good that there are suggestions for improvements, and these are not rocket science. Sixty per cent of those people who responded – community members, Victorians – said ‘fix the road surface’. They also said to provide wider shoulders for safety and for water to run off properly, to provide wider lanes and to clear trees and vegetation and other obstructions. Well, drive around anywhere in Gippsland and Eastern Victoria Region and you will see where trees and vegetation are obstructing driver safety and are compromising driver safety. Also of course, in bushfire season they become a wick. We certainly heard that in our inquiry into climate change resilience from the good CFA people in Emerald. They were very concerned about the fact that many of our communities are one road in and one road out and that if there is not that whole-of-road maintenance, including making sure that not only are the edges firm and cleared of detritus and growth but also tree limbs are removed, that can act as a wick.

In conclusion, certainly I support this motion and I support my colleague Danny O’Brien, and I call on the government to have a change of heart and grow a heart and start funding regional roads in the manner which we deserve.

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (16:51): Can I take a moment to thank Mrs Tyrrell for bringing forward this motion for us on this on this Wednesday afternoon. This motion does provide a valuable opportunity to shed light on the extensive work and substantial investments our government is already making to maintain and enhance Victoria’s road infrastructure. As others have mentioned, we will not be supporting this motion because quite simply the work it calls for is work that the government is already doing. We recognise the challenges on our road network, challenges compounded by some of the most severe weather events in recent memory. However, the Allan Labor government is fully committed to addressing these issues and prioritising high-quality repairs where they are needed most.

To illustrate this, just earlier this month we launched our latest road maintenance program. This year alone we are investing an unprecedented $964 million into road maintenance across Victoria, and this builds on last year’s $770 million road blitz, which saw over 200,000 potholes fixed, more than 100,000 square metres of road resurfaced and 2600 kilometres of roads treated, nearly 2500 kilometres of which were located in regional Victoria. This year’s investment translates to approximately $2.6 million being spent every single day between now and mid-2025. These were some statistics and facts that I laid out earlier during the short-form document motion moved by Mrs Deeming. In that I also mentioned that we are directing these funds towards hundreds of kilometres of road rehabilitation, repair and resurfacing projects statewide, ranging from major metropolitan highways to rural roads that our regional communities certainly depend upon.

Our team are already out there on the ground delivering on this commitment. Thousands of individual projects are underway, encompassing not just on-the-road repairs but also vital infrastructure maintenance, including bridges, traffic lights and signage. As the warmer weather arrives Victorians can expect to see more of our crews on the road making their drives safer every day, stronger every day and smoother every day.

Our roads have faced relentless – my goodness, relentless – wear and tear over recent years. The last three years have brought some of the wettest conditions in our state’s history with recurring extreme weather events, including the recent flooding in July. We are not talking just about visible damage either, it is important to note. Consistently wet weather has a profound impact on the integrity of our roads. Water seeps beneath the surface, compromising the road base and complicating repairs, even when surface damage appears minimal.

We recognise that regional roads in particular have been hit hard. Roads in these areas are crucial for keeping communities connected and transporting goods. That is why a significant portion of this funding has gone to, and is going to, regional Victoria. From the Goulburn Valley Highway to the Princes Highway West, from Bacchus Marsh Road to Kilmore Road, our crews are making a difference, ensuring Victorians can travel with peace of mind. As I mentioned earlier, and I will say it again, the flood inquiry work that many of us on the Environment and Planning Committee were fortunate to be part of highlighted really the vast damage that has been done to our roads by more intense and frequent rain as a result of climate change.

It is just the beginning, and I will refer back to perhaps the statistics I gave earlier. I understand, however, that there is limited time and that in this chamber there are a couple of members from regional Victoria that want to make contributions about their electorates and the impacts on regional roads in their electorates. I know that both Mr McCracken and of course Ms Lovell are representatives of regional Victoria and do want to make contributions, so I will leave my remarks there.

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (16:55): I rise to speak on Mrs Tyrrell’s motion, and I thank her for bringing it to the house. As Mrs Tyrrell said, this is the single biggest issue that we face in our offices. We have people in every day. We have emails every day. We have phone calls every day from someone else who has travelled on a road that they consider to be substandard. In Northern Victoria we have two sayings. Mrs Tyrrell outlined one, which is that we are required to have cars that are roadworthy but the roads are not required to be carworthy. The other saying that we have we borrowed from Mr McCracken, who I think coined it when he said that we no longer drive on the left of the road, we drive on what is left of the road. That is precisely what we do in Northern Victoria.

I think the state of the road is highlighted by the fact that last year, in 2023, we had a 15-year high for the road toll for lives lost on roads in regional Victoria. Last year there were 295 lives lost, and that was a 15-year high. This year to today, 30 October, there have actually been 233 lives lost, but last year at this point in time there were 236. So we are three less than last year, but we are actually on track to have another record loss of life on Victorian roads, because in that 236 from last year we had three accidents in our electorate that you could not contribute to the condition of the roads. In those three accidents alone there were 14 lives lost. There were five lost at Labuan Road, which I guess you could attribute to the condition of the road because of the lack of line of sight, but it was driver error through that major intersection that caused those five lives to be lost. In Daylesford we had five lives lost, and again that was a medical incident for the driver and a very tragic accident there. In Chiltern there were four lives lost; again that was driver error. And we had another four lives lost up in Mansfield. So 18 lives were lost in four accidents, but the initial 14 that I spoke of, on Labuan Road and in Daylesford and Chiltern, you would not really put down to the condition of the road. So I think that really we are probably ahead of schedule this year, unfortunately, to have another record number of lives lost in Victoria.

The government have been crowing about their investment to fix Victorian roads, but it is not going to fix Victorian roads. We know that is just the general maintenance budget. In fact in the 11 electorates in my region, four of them do not have a single road that will get any maintenance out of that project. Those are Bendigo East, the Premier’s electorate; Bendigo West, the Speaker’s electorate; Murray Plains; and Eildon. There is not a single road in any of those electorates that is actually on the list for maintenance. In fact there are less than 32 kilometres of roads right across the whole of Northern Victoria that will actually see any treatment done to them.

I guess the real disappointment of course is in the Eildon electorate, where the Melba Highway, which was deemed to be the worst road in Victoria according to the RACV survey, is not getting any maintenance. This is despite the minister, Minister Horne, standing in front of the TV cameras when she announced this maintenance blitz saying the Melba Highway would be repaired. When you look at the Regional Roads Victoria list, the Melba Highway is actually not there. The list that was given to the media also included a section of the Midland Highway between Tatura and Shepparton as going to be repaired. It is also not on the Regional Roads Victoria website. When the media went back to Regional Roads Victoria, they confirmed that neither the Melba Highway nor the Midland Highway from Tatura to Shepparton will be upgraded under this so-called blitz that the government is undertaking.

In the Yan Yean electorate, where people are really crying out for improvements to Donnybrook Road, to Yan Yean Road and to a number of roads, there is only 290 metres of road that is actually going to get any maintenance done under this roads blitz. In the Shepparton electorate it is 1.4 kilometres, in Benambra electorate 1.36 kilometres, in Ovens Valley 1.59 kilometres. Euroa is doing a little bit better with 8.4 kilometres and Mildura 4.9 kilometres. It seems that Macedon is the one that will get the most roads upgraded in my electorate, but again it is only 13½ kilometres of roads that will see any treatment. I have recently done a survey of my electorate for roads that need to be upgraded, and the people out there that use the roads can certainly tell you which roads need upgrading. We have had hundreds of responses to our survey, and they will give us roads to raise with this government for many weeks to come in the Parliament.

The state of our roads is absolutely disgraceful. They are unsafe. I talked before about the deaths last year, and there is one particular accident that I want to mention because this accident was probably the last death we had in the electorate of Shepparton last year. It was a tragic death on 31 December. I think it was about 7:30 at night. A motorcycle hit a pothole on the Barmah-Shepparton Road at Kaarimba, and the lady who was riding that motorcycle was thrown off the motorcycle and landed on her head. That pothole covered the entire width of the carriageway of the road. She had no way of avoiding it. There was very little signage leading up to it to say that the pothole was there. In fact people say where the signage was located it was too late to avoid it. Her partner was following her in the car, and he saw her hit the road. She landed on her head and then the motorcycle landed on her. He immediately rushed to her and he held her in his arms, but unfortunately she died before the ambulance arrived 28 minutes later. That was a tragic way to end the year for us in the Shepparton electorate.

We certainly do not want to be ending this year the same way. We want the government to invest in our roads. The main road that I am getting in the Shepparton area at the moment is the Congupna–Katamatite road. It is an absolute shocker. But there are so many roads, particularly in Yan Yean and Macedon, that people are putting up that need to be repaired and maintained, and I urge this government to spend more on roads in regional Victoria.

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (17:04): I rise to fully support this motion from Mrs Tyrrell, and I congratulate her on putting on the record once again the awful state of roads in country Victoria. Part 1 of the motion recognises that under the Allan Labor government Victoria has some of the worst road conditions in the country. This is completely true. It is backed by anecdotal evidence from constituents I see every week, and I know many other people have those constituents reporting to them as well.

In my area the Western Highway is in a poor state of repair. Works are done in one area and then another crumbles, and when works continue, the area that was just worked on then crumbles. There have been a lot of instances of that. The Princes Highway, which is also in my electorate, has notorious areas, especially west of Colac. You just hope that you have got great suspension and great car insurance, because you need them both, which is a great shame because it causes significant financial impost to people that just want to travel on a road. It is a very, very basic thing. The Midland Highway, which goes in particular from Ballarat to Geelong, south of Ballarat heading towards Geelong has some of the more terrible pieces of road, especially near the small township of Meredith. Locals have reported damage to vehicles, and much of the damage does not fall within the scope of the VicRoads compensation scheme, so again locals are forced to traverse roads that cause significant damage to vehicles. We are not just talking cars here; we are talking trucks, we are talking caravans, we are talking road bikes – if the Greens were in here, they might be worried about that as well. We are talking about tankers, semitrailers – all sorts of vehicles that incur damage because of the state of the roads. That places a significant concern on safety and risk, because we do not want people driving off roads but we also want people to stay incredibly safe on our road network.

That brings me to part (2) of this motion, the failure to repair roads in a timely manner causing Victoria’s road network to crumble. When friends of mine come from interstate, one of the first things they comment on is the state of roads. If you come via road, obviously you come from New South Wales or South Australia. It is one of the first things they say: ‘Why are your roads so bad in Victoria?’ The answer is pretty obvious – they are not a priority. I have many constituents who regularly update me on the state of roads in their local community as well. A constituent of mine, Jason, who lives near Coleraine, has sent me photographs of the deplorable condition of the Glenelg Highway between Coleraine and Casterton. You would not believe this, but there is a stretch of 27 kilometres which he says is extremely difficult and challenging to drive on. We are talking potholes, we are talking big cracks in the road – 27 kilometres of this. Imagine if that was in the city; it would be fixed in a heartbeat. But not country Victoria. Why? You have to ask the question. Another local, John, who spoke to me – he lives near Beaufort – said the stretch of road between there and Trawalla on the Western Highway has had constant roadworks, and as he said, it seems to have been on and off for years but without any improvement to the surface condition and drivability. Locals say to me that they are saying this to government MPs as well, but clearly there is not anyone listening. You would have to conclude that they do not particularly care.

Point (3) and point (4) of Mrs Tyrrell’s motion deal with the roads blitz that was recently announced by the state government. We know it is not entirely true to call it a roads blitz unless you want to call it a media blitz, because that is probably more what it actually is, because the funding, which is basically maintenance funding coupled with some flood recovery funding, was budgeted for in the last state budget. There is no new money in this at all. Maybe the blitz is in advertising and pamphlets, not in actual roadwork being done. There is nothing for upgrades, nothing for new roads. This is just maintenance money. But I do have to give credit to those opposite for creativity. It is a great way to spin a story. The $675 million spend in regional Victoria, which equates to around 70 per cent of the entire fund, is down 16 per cent on 2020 levels. So let us not pretend that there is an increase in funding at all; there is actually a decrease. Is this due to financial mismanagement? Or maybe country people just are not a priority. This blitz, which occurs annually at the start of the spring works, seems to be the only period of time that significant roadworks actually occur. I would have to ask why this is the case.

Look at other jurisdictions around the world. If you look at the USA, they have got a very varied climate. They have snow, they have got arid parts. They are able to build concrete roads that last a long time. You have to ask: why can’t we do that here in Australia? Why can’t we build something that actually lasts for the long term instead of having to continually and very expensively work on our country roads? In Canada a large proportion of their country is coated with snow. Their roads are exceptional, and they have a very large, diverse, dispersed population as well, very similar to Australia. If the Canadians can do it, why can’t we? What about European nations? Cyprus, Türkiye, Greece, Spain and Portugal are all countries with warmer climates. They all have excellent roads. Why can’t we learn from these jurisdictions about how to build roads in different sets of climates with varying conditions?

I would like to acknowledge the hard work of the shadow minister Mr Danny O’Brien in the other place for bringing attention to this and also the shadow parliamentary secretary for roads Bev McArthur because they have been tireless in their advocacy for country roads for a long, long time. I again congratulate Mrs Tyrrell on her work to bring this motion to the chamber. I am not sure how this vote will go, but I hope that the government, whatever happens, actively listens to the very important issue that she has raised, and I hope that they think about the poor country voters in our electorates. I know you are a country MP too, Mrs Tyrrell. I hope that they actually listen to country MPs and country constituents instead of focusing all their money on city projects that really do not drive much of a benefit for country people like you, me and everyone else.

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (17:11): I would like to thank everyone for their contributions today. The condition of Victorian roads has been plaguing regional Victorians for many years. While Victorians were relieved to hear the announcement of the roads blitz by the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, they remain very sceptical.

For too long my constituents have watched roads be patched, resealed and supposedly fixed, only to see potholes reform, cracks reopen and rough surfaces reappear in a matter of weeks, if not days. The government must be held accountable for this. All this spending on roads seems to be wasted money if the job is not done right the first time. The contracts awarded to road maintenance companies must be seriously looked at. The quality of their work and the cost to do said work must be taken into consideration when offering contracts for this roads blitz. It seems too many contractors are being rewarded for subpar work with renewed contracts.

This state is so far in debt our great-grandchildren will still be paying it off, so it makes financial sense to ensure contracts are awarded to companies that do quality and lasting work to our roads that goes the distance and is weatherproof, durable and load bearing. Our taxpayers, road users and visiting interstate motorists deserve far better than what this government is currently providing. Believe it or not, I actually have faith that the government can do the right thing by Victorians. It is whether or not they choose to do the right thing that will be the decider.

Council divided on motion:

Ayes (17): Melina Bath, Jeff Bourman, Gaelle Broad, Georgie Crozier, David Davis, Moira Deeming, Renee Heath, Ann-Marie Hermans, David Limbrick, Wendy Lovell, Trung Luu, Bev McArthur, Joe McCracken, Nick McGowan, Evan Mulholland, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, Richard Welch

Noes (17): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Enver Erdogan, Jacinta Ermacora, David Ettershank, Michael Galea, Shaun Leane, Tom McIntosh, Rachel Payne, Harriet Shing, Ingrid Stitt, Jaclyn Symes, Lee Tarlamis, Sonja Terpstra, Gayle Tierney, Sheena Watt

Motion negatived.