A $5 billion road maintenance fund announced this week by The Nationals’ will drastically improve road construction standards and deliver relief to local drivers sick of dodging potholes and enduring reduced speed limits, said The Nationals’ candidate for Gippsland East, Gemma Rendell.
“Our roads are in a disgraceful condition, and it requires this major investment and the commitment to improve construction standards to fix the issue,” she said.
Announced this week by Leader of The Nationals’ and Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, the plan will invest $5 billion over four years.
Ms Rendell said East Gippsland residents and all country Victorians had to put up with roads that are patched up rather than properly repaired.
“The situation is these temporary solutions soon fail and what we see is reduced speed limits for extended periods, which impacts on business expenses and travel times.”
Ms Rendell said East Gippsland’s roads have crumbled while Labor has poured billions into corruption-plagued Big Build projects. If elected in November, The Nationals will stop the waste and end the corruption so we can reinvest that money where it’s needed.
“We will re-establish Better Roads Victoria, rebuilding the engineering and technical expertise stripped out when Labor axed Regional Roads Victoria.
A full audit of the state’s roads will be conducted within six months of taking office, using i-PAVE assessment technology to set an evidence-based program of works.
Ms Rendell said the announcement was part of The Nationals broader commitment to regional Victoria through the Fair Share Guarantee, which will direct 25 per cent of the state’s infrastructure spending to the regions.
“Under Labor, regional Victoria gets less than 12 per cent of infrastructure spending despite making up 25 per cent of the state’s population. That’s not fair, and it’s why our roads keep failing.
“With The Nationals’ in government, roads will be fixed once and fixed properly, and contractors will be held accountable for the quality of their work,” she said.
