Mildura electorate roads
Ms CUPPER (Mildura) (11:23): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier change the way road maintenance and upgrades are prioritised so that roads in my electorate have a fighting chance of getting fixed? My office has sought the community’s voice on the worst roads in our electorate. These people know these roads well, and their voices deserve to be heard. Among the worst roads identified were the Sunraysia, Mallee and Henty highways and the now infamous Robinvale–Sea Lake Road. As a result of funding criteria set by the government, our roads keep missing out because apparently there are not enough people using them. This criteria does not take into account other important factors, including safety, the value of these roads to our economy or how dilapidated they are. My question is: can the Premier change the way road maintenance and upgrades are prioritised so that the roads in my electorate have a fighting chance of getting fixed?
Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (11:24): I thank the Independent member for Mildura for her question. I am more than happy to have a further discussion with the member about these matters. There are a number of different criteria that are used to determine how the record funding allocations that our government has made are spent on individual road projects. There are some new roads that are built; there is maintenance that is funded across the whole state. There are a number of different criteria that are used to determine where those funding allocations will be made.
I do not for a moment suggest that the member has not highlighted roads of some significant concern, and I would agree with her that those locals who use those roads every day will be best placed to give us all a clearer understanding of where some future support needs to be spent. I am more than happy to have a further discussion with the member about any deficiencies in those allocation criteria as she and her local community see it, and beyond that the Minister for Roads in the other place, I am sure, would be more than happy to have some conversations and receive representations from the member for Mildura on any given road project.
I would just say that I know there have been a number of road upgrades—around $90 million-odd worth of investment—about $100 million worth of investment over the life of our government in the north-west of the state. I am happy to perhaps correspond with the member and give her a full list, a detailed list of the investments we have made. I think that would demonstrate to her, to her community and indeed to all members that we are prepared to do more, and we acknowledge that even though there was the best part of $900 million worth of road maintenance and road building funding in this year’s budget, admittedly some in regional Victoria—
Ms Allan: A record spend!
Mr ANDREWS: and some in the suburbs of Melbourne, for instance. It is across the whole state. It is a record spend, as the Minister for Transport Infrastructure points out, but I am the first to say there is more that has to be done of course. Part of the approach we have taken to this is rather than having a very large amount of money spent one year and very little the next—that it is not a boom-and-bust cycle in terms of road maintenance funding and the servicing work that we do—we have tried to bring some consistency to this, and that is I think very important for safety. It is also very important for jobs. The road maintenance and road building industry is a very significant employer. So there are all those benefits as well. But I am more than happy to have a further conversation with the member about the deficiencies as she sees them and as her community sees them, and I will ask the Minister for Roads in the other place to engage with the member also.
Ms CUPPER (Mildura) (11:27): My supplementary question is also to the Premier. Your government committed $2.9 million for urgent repairs to the Robinvale-Sea Lake Road, which I acknowledge, but these repairs were piecemeal and served only to restore the 100-kilometre speed limit that was reduced to an untenable 80 kilometres earlier this year. Even after these repairs, the road will not be capable of handling the 10 000 additional truck movements that will result from the stalled standardisation of the Murray Basin rail line. Many of our roads need attention, but as a starting point will the Premier commit to funding the $30 million needed to rebuild the Robinvale-Sea Lake Road for the benefit of our community and the economy of the entire state?
Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (11:27): I thank the member for Mildura for her supplementary question and for her acknowledgment that there was a $2.9 million investment, principally to repair the works that needed to be done on the shoulders of that road, particularly to get the speed limit back up to 100 kilometres. I do not for a moment underestimate that traffic volumes on that road will grow, and ultimately—whether it is 500 vehicles a day, 5000 or 50 000—to each of the local communities who use that road and others, it is an important link. There are decisions that have to be made, there are competing projects across the whole state, and there is never in one year enough money to upgrade every single road across the state.
I am not in a position to announce a $30 million allocation today—and, again, announcements on the run like that probably would not be worth a great deal—but I am more than happy to engage with the member for Mildura on this issue and on any other issue she seeks to raise with me. She is a great champion on behalf of her community, and we will keep working with her.