“We don’t drive on the left side of the road, we drive on what’s left of them”.

That is the strong message from the Nationals’ Member for Mildura, Jade Benham, after more roads funding cuts in a brutal State Budget.

Road maintenance funding has been slashed by 25 per cent from 2022 to 2023. In total, it has been cut a whopping 45 per cent since 2020.

“Regional Victoria’s crumbling roads will only decay, with funding cut from $702.2 million to just $441.6 million in the last year alone,” Ms Benham says.

Ms Benham invited Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, to Wycheproof to inspect the desperately overdue repairs of the Wycheproof to Boort Road, along with many other crumbling roads that carry our food and fibre supplies to the city.

“Without the correct investment into road maintenance and rail freight network projects this will ultimately cost lives at the end of the day,” said Mr O’Brien.

“This is not a Budget that makes lives better but one that burdens Victorians with more debt, more taxes, and cuts to promised infrastructure projects. It is a Budget that divides Victorians instead of uniting them.

“Regional Victorians are paying the price for Labor’s incompetence and life continues to get harder.”

This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 2 June 2023.