Thursday 2 May 2024
The Allan Labor Government’s own MPs and agencies are now highlighting the poor state of our roads, with a government road builder forced to tender for work in South Australia because funding has dried up in Victoria.
SprayLine Road Services, the government-owned road builder, is tendering for work in South Australia, as a 45 per cent cut to the road maintenance budget since 2020 bites deep for Victoria’s roads and the contractors that used to be employed to fix them.
Industry sources said the tender was 15 per cent under what the local contractors could offer as SprayLine desperately seeks to keep its Victorian staff employed – meaning Victorians are effectively subsidising roadworks in South Australia while our own roads are crumbling.
It comes as Labor Member for Ripon, Martha Haylett, questioned the Minister for Roads and Road Safety in State Parliament about “serious safety concerns” about the state of the Western Highway, saying she was getting “non-stop inquiries” from constituents about the state of the highway.
Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, said he was being contacted regularly by road contractors who have no work because the Allan Labor Government has slashed road maintenance spending.
“Labor can’t manage money, it can’t manage projects and it’s Victorian motorists who are paying the price.
“The road maintenance cuts have been savage and on top of a couple of wet years, have seen our roads fall into disrepair right across the state. Indeed a survey of roads quality undertaken for the Department of Transport and Planning indicated 91 per cent of roads were in a poor or very poor state.
“That there are no resealing contracts being let this year is an indictment on the Government and means damage will only get worse in future.
“I drove the Western Highway myself two weeks ago and it is a shocking state. The only surprising thing about the local Labor MP raising her concerns is that she hasn’t done so earlier.
“Labor must reverse the cuts of past years in next week’s State Budget.”