Victoria’s roads will continue to worsen after the State Government confirmed this week there is no additional funding for repairs after floods last year.
Roads Minister Melissa Horne was lost for answers on Wednesday as a Public Accounts and Estimates hearing heard that the Government’s road asset management budget has been cut 25 per cent in this year’s budget.
It comes on top of additional funding promised across 10 years being “back ended”, meaning little will be spent in the coming years.
Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, said the cuts continued in the road safety area, despite a horror year on our roads and a 35 per cent increase in lives lost.
“The Road Safety Fund which receives money from the TAC was reduced $126 million this financial year and will be cut a further $48 million next year,” said Mr O’Brien.
“The Government could not explain why.
“The Budget papers show that road safety initiatives are being reduced with new tactile roadside line marking dropping from 653 kilometres two years ago to just three kilometres this year and roadside barriers installed down from 220km to 23.5km.
“At the same time the Road Smart program, a previous Labor election commitment which provided road safety training to year 10 students, has been axed.”
Minister Horne could only blame Federal Labor’s cuts for the end of road safety programs, and failed to offer any support to fix local council roads that get people to and from home.
Other information revealed in the hearings included a reduction in regional roads rehabilitated despite a record $2.5 billion to be collected from vehicle registration.
“The Government couldn’t even show me in the budget papers where funding is coming from for its Safer Local Roads and Streets Program, hastily announced just before the budget,” said Mr O’Brien.
“Under Labor, Victoria is broke, and it’s motorists who will pay the cost through the continued deterioration of our roads.”
Related story: Budget holes, crumble roads
This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 16 June 2023.
