The Nationals are backing rural councils calling for their fair share of state government funding to tackle the growing backlog of deteriorating local roads and bridges across country Victoria.
Rural Councils Victoria has called for $288 million over four years, warning councils simply cannot keep carrying the enormous cost of maintaining the local road network without greater support from the state.
Victoria’s rural councils are responsible for about 134,000 kilometres of roads, carrying school buses, farm machinery, grain trucks, milk tankers, emergency services and families every day.
The Nationals Member for Lowan, Emma Kealy, said the organisation’s call highlighted a problem The Nationals had been raising for years.
“Country Victorians don’t care who owns the road. They just want it to be safe,” Ms Kealy said.
“Our councils maintain an enormous road and bridge network with small populations and limited rate bases, and they simply cannot do it alone.
“When councils are telling us they need help, the state government should listen.”
The Victorian Auditor-General has warned that most rural shires recorded negative adjusted underlying results in 2024-25, while many smaller councils are heavily reliant on government grants to fund essential infrastructure.
The pressure is particularly acute on local roads, which form the first and last kilometre of Victoria’s freight network and connect farms and regional businesses to the state arterial network.
“Every tonne of grain, every livestock truck and every piece of produce has to get from the farm gate to the highway,” Ms Kealy said.
“Local roads and bridges aren’t optional infrastructure – they are essential to our food supply, our regional economy and the safety of country communities.”
When last in government, the Liberals and Nationals’ Country Roads and Bridges Program provided dedicated state government funding directly to rural and regional councils for their local road networks.
Labor abolished the program after coming to government in 2014.
Ms Kealy said a multi-party parliamentary inquiry into local government funding had since recommended dedicated funding be restored, but Labor rejected the recommendation.
“After 12 years of Labor, our country councils are still being expected to do more with less while their road and bridge maintenance backlog continues to grow,” she said.
“Labor’s latest election-year pothole blitz might patch a few small sections of state roads, but it does nothing to fix the thousands of kilometres of local roads that get families, farmers and freight to those highways in the first place.
“The Nationals have already committed $5 billion to repair and rebuild Victoria’s state road network.
“But fixing country roads means looking at the whole network.
“Rural councils have made it very clear what they need. The Nationals are listening.
“It’s time rural regional Victoria got its fair share, which is exactly what The Nationals fight for every single day.”
