Dear Editor,
Victorians have a new Premier, but for those of us in Gippsland there is a nagging sense of déjà vu.
Ben Carroll is not a fresh face. He has spent a decade around the Cabinet table and for the past three years has been Jacinta Allan’s Deputy Premier.
If Gippslanders are hoping for a new direction, they should remember Mr Carroll’s previous job. From 2020 he was the Minister responsible for Roads and Road Safety and Public Transport.
It was under his watch that our roads deteriorated to the point where potholes became the defining symbol of Labor’s neglect.
Across Gippsland, families, farmers, tradies and freight operators have paid the price with damaged vehicles, blown tyres and dangerous roads, while the Labor Government poured tens of billions of dollars into Melbourne mega-projects plagued by cost blowouts.
At the same time, Mr Carroll was responsible for V/Line. Gippsland Line commuters experienced delays, cancellations, months of coach replacements and unreliable services all in the name of a promised upgrade that failed to expand services beyond Traralgon. Meanwhile commuters from Yarram and Leongatha are still waiting for coach services that were originally promised in 2024.
Mr Carroll cannot claim to offer a fresh start when he helped make the decisions that have left Gippsland’s roads and rail services in the state they are today.
Changing the Premier does not change Labor’s record.
Gippslanders deserve safe roads, reliable public transport and a government that invests fairly in regional communities.
A new Premier won’t deliver that when it is the same old Labor government making the same old decisions.
Yours sincerely,
Danny O’Brien MP
Leader of The Nationals
Member for Gippsland South
