Tuesday, 9 December 2025

 Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (22:29): (2237) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety in the other place, and the action I seek is for the minister to update me on our road network. Our roads are used each and every day by thousands of road users, whether it be for commuting to work, travelling on holidays, the local school and kinder run, doing the shopping or making deliveries. It includes a range of vehicles, like cars, trucks, buses, and motorcyclists like me. But because of this consistent usage on our roads every day, our roads often need repairs.

In the aftermath of the 2022 flood event, the Allan Labor government invested an unprecedented amount of funding for our roads – around $2 billion to fund road repairs. And who is responsible for road repairs, I hear you ask. Well, local councils are responsible for maintaining the vast majority of our road network – 90 per cent of it in fact, with many local roads being contained within municipal boundaries. Road repairs are funded through council rates and charges and government grants from the Victorian or Australian governments. The remaining 10 per cent of the road network is either the responsibility of the state or federal government. The Australian government provides funding for road infrastructure via programs such as the road safety program and the local roads and community infrastructure program, which provide funds directly to local councils for local road projects. So how do you get a pothole fixed if you see one? For freeways and arterial roads, if it is an urgent hazard, you can call the VicRoads department of planning on 13 11 70. For non-urgent things like small potholes or faded line markings or problems with signage, use the VicRoads website. For the remaining 90 per cent of the road network you will need to contact your local council, as they are responsible. You can also use the Snap Send Solve app, which allows you to report the matter with a few simple clicks and even helpfully tells you who the responsible authority is. So rather than dining out on a steady diet of 3AW rage bait, take action, not only for yourself but for your fellow road users, who will also benefit from having well-maintained roads.