New Premier, same old story for regional Victoria
Victorians woke up this week to a new Premier. For those of us in regional Victoria, though, there is a nagging sense of deja vu.
Ben Carroll is not a fresh face parachuted in from outside the Labor machine. He has sat at the cabinet table for a decade, and for the last three years he has been Jacinta Allan’s Deputy Premier. If regional Victorians are looking for a change in direction under the Carroll Labor Government, they should look closely at what he actually did the last time he held oversaw two vital components of regional Victoria, our roads and our trains.
From June 2020, Mr Carroll was Minister for Public Transport and Minister for Roads and Road Safety. It was on his watch that our country roads slid into the state they are in today, creating a maintenance backlog so severe that “pothole” has become shorthand for a decade of Labor neglect of everything outside metropolitan Melbourne.
Farmers, tradies and families in regional Victoria have been paying the price in blown tyres and broken axles ever since, while billions were funnelled into costly, corrupt city projects.
At the same time, Mr Carroll was the minister responsible for V/Line. He liked to talk about record investment, and there was plenty of spin about fare caps and new services. But regional Victorians who actually rely on V/Line to get to work, to hospital appointments or to see family know that just resulted in unreliable timetables, cancelled services and a network that has never managed to live up to the promises made by Labor.
Mr Carroll was in the room for the decisions that saw Melbourne’s Big Build blow out by billions while country roads crumbled.
Mr Carroll wants regional Victorians to believe he represents a fresh start. But this is not a new government. It is the same Labor government, the same horse with a different jockey.
Regional Victorians deserve better. An elected Nationals and Liberal Government will deliver a genuine Fair Share Guarantee for regional Victoria with 25 per cent of infrastructure funding to match our population share of 25 per cent. Under Ben Carroll’s Labor we currently get a paltry 12 per cent.
Come November, regional Victoria has a chance to turf Labor and deliver Victoria a fresh start.
Danny O’Brien, Leader of The Nationals
