Thursday, 30 October 2025

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. The Department of Transport and Planning annual report today reveals that last financial year major patching works on regional roads fell 45 per cent short of target, and in outer-metro areas the target was missed by a whopping 73 per cent. Why has the Labor government given up on fixing our roads?

 Melissa HORNE (Williamstown – Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Minister for Health Infrastructure) (14:40): I thank the member for his question. It is a bit like Pavlov’s dog. You know, the Weekly Times writes an article and the member asks a question. However, patching was introduced – and I have explained this to the member before – as a short-term measure in order to be able to deal with the flood events that occurred. As a result –

Members interjecting.

Melissa HORNE: It is very inconvenient, isn’t it? But what we have done subsequently is do more rehabilitations. These are bigger pieces of work. In fact I was just recently with the member for Macedon on the Heathcote-Kyneton Road announcing the start of the maintenance season to be doing that big rehabilitation work out there. After all, we are the government that is investing nearly $1 billion in our road maintenance program, and much of that is in our road rehabilitation projects. I appreciate that whilst the Weekly Times consistently – you know, ‘Always on time, always getting it wrong’ – is always misreporting the facts and then is always being –

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order on the question of relevance, Speaker, this was not in the Weekly Times; it is in the minister’s department’s annual report today.

The SPEAKER: That is not a point of order, Leader of the Nationals.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Bulleen can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Bulleen withdrew from chamber.

Melissa HORNE: The facts of the matter are that this is a government that is investing nearly a billion dollars last year and nearly a billion dollars this year on fixing our roads across the state.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for South-West Coast, this is your last warning.

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (14:43): The government claims its road maintenance budget for last year was $964 million, and the minister has just repeated that claim. Yet the annual report today shows the total spending on road asset management was just $692 million. Why is the government cutting budgets and slashing road maintenance works when the state of our roads has never been worse?

 Melissa HORNE (Williamstown – Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Minister for Health Infrastructure) (14:44): I have explained this to the Leader of the National Party time and time again. You need to take the asset funding and you need to take the output funding and put them together, because it is like a noun and a verb. Yes, you do that. But let us go for a little bit of a wander back in time. In August 2012 Clay Lucas – a very good journalist, he was – wrote that drivers should prepare for more road potholes, cracking asphalt and patched surfaces after a dramatic slashing of the state’s maintenance plan.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: The member for Narracan can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Narracan withdrew from chamber.

Melissa HORNE: Now, who was that? I believe it was Terry Mulder who did that. And then in September 2012 he wrote that job cuts would leave the roads authority unable to do its job properly. Unlike those on the other side, we invest in our roads.