Wednesday, 29 July 2026

 John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:03): I rise to speak on the motion raised by my colleague from northern Victoria regarding the conditions of roads in Victoria. There is no doubt that the road network of Victoria is an incredibly important piece of infrastructure. The network is an expansive piece of infrastructure and is the only piece of infrastructure that links the entire state together. The road network spans over 220,000 kilometres when including local roads. These span across the entire diversity of the state and the diverse areas therein, from the alpine regions and the Dandenong Ranges to the Grampians and all the way out to the plains of the Mallee and to inner-city places like Prahran. The network is vastly diverse and as such has faced a diversity of challenges. Every road faces differing conditions, and that can impact the rate at which the conditions of the roads deteriorate. Whether it be extreme weather or heavy freight usage, all of these things create unique yet important challenges to the road network. Because the road network provides crucial links for people all across Victoria, it makes addressing those challenges all the more important. Roads create vital connections between communities, particularly in regional Victoria, where they can often be the only means to get from one place to another.

They are also critical arteries in the logistics systems of the economy, providing the laneways that deliver goods and services to communities throughout Victoria. These connections provide critical lifelines for communities across the state. A solid road network improves the overall wealth and prosperity for regional areas through enabling tourism, shipping and other generalised commerce. Ensuring that the state has a well-functioning and well-looked-after road network is critical to maintaining a high-productivity capacity. The manufacturing and agricultural industries in Victoria rely on there being a strong and reliable road network. Having a strong and reliable network that can be used safely is of benefit to the economy and it is also of benefit to workers. As a former secretary of the Transport Workers’ Union, these are facts I know very well.

Ensuring that the road network remains well maintained is about more than just getting from point A to point B comfortably and reliably. Well-maintained roads are safer and mean less needless deaths. They also keep communities connected, improve quality of life and support economic activity by providing reliable access to work, education, health care and other essential services. Whether it is a worker commuting to their job, a student travelling to school or a family accessing medical care, a well-maintained road network helps ensure people get where they need to get safely and efficiently.

In the 2026–27 Victorian budget this Labor government announced a $1 billion initiative to rebuild and repair road surfaces across Victoria. That is enough to get rid of 200,000 potholes and much more. This represents one of the biggest single investments in the upgrading and maintaining of road networks in this state’s history. The vast majority of these funds, in fact 70 per cent of it, will be going to regional Victoria in areas that desperately need maintenance and repair. These funds will be used to ensure that arterial roads are resurfaced, repaired and maintained; to ensure that bridges, traffic lights and other intersections throughout the state remain as safe as possible; to clear dangerous foliage along roadways in metropolitan and regional areas; and to deliver critical repairs and replacements to damaged or old road signs. This is about more than the aesthetics. It is about improving the lives of motorists and improving road safety. It is also about extending the life of the roadways that we currently have in place.

We know well that poor road quality can have adverse outcomes for everyone on the road. It creates hazards for those on motorcycles and on bicycles. Poor road conditions can make it harder for emergency vehicles to get where they need to be both quickly and safely and they can cause unneeded damage to vehicles, which costs private individuals and businesses too much money in repairs, especially in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. The reason I am talking about this is because I want to push back on the notion that this Labor government is unaware of those issues or that we are not acting on those issues when we are acting through the largest investment in road repair this state has ever seen.

But this is by far not the only thing the Labor government has done. One of the most dangerous things that can happen on the road is for a driver to get behind the wheel while fatigued. Driving tired is a killer on our roads. That is why it is so important to invest in adequate roadside infrastructure that allows drivers to rest when they are tired, rather than continue driving. These rest stops are used by regional commuters of all types, from local residents to those travelling and engaging in tourism to drivers of heavy trucks and vehicles. Ensuring that these commuters have a safe but comfortable place to stop and rest is of great importance. We have heard the community’s concerns about some of these rest stops – that facilities are outdated or that people do not feel safe whilst they are stopped there. Labor has listened and responded. In partnership with the federal government, we have begun upgrading rest stops along Victoria’s regional freeways. This will give commuters a comfortable and safe place to rest. While we know that well-rested drivers means less accidents and fewer deaths on the road, roads and road safety is of deep importance to this Labor government.

I know the importance of safe roads and road infrastructure. Last month I had the honour of heading up to Alexandra to the annual Victorian Truck Drivers Memorial. This is a memorial to honour and remember all truck drivers killed on Victoria’s roads over the past year, and it was a sobering experience. Truck drivers are some of the most important workers in our modern economy. They are the key players making sure that our logistics runs smoothly. That means food on the shelves and products in the shops, that means businesses have a steady flow of goods and it means that families and communities can access the essentials that they need. Truck drivers are the backbone of our economy and play a vital role in keeping the economy moving. It is a tragedy and unacceptable that any truck driver should be killed on our roads due to the poor quality or maintenance of those roads. Being at that service was a stark reminder of the importance of improving safety on our roads and the real human impact. That is why the Carroll Labor government is committed to making Victorian roads safer by improving maintenance and repair operations and by investing in initiatives to drive down the rates of deaths caused by fatigued drivers. We can and must save lives on our roads. This is why Labor will continue to invest in ensuring that the road network is safe for all commuters that use it. This is all happening because the Carroll Labor government understands the importance of the road network.

What we see in this motion before us today is not an attempt to improve anything, rather an opportunity for those on the crossbench to grandstand. This is an issue of critical importance for Victorians, whether they live in Brunswick, Ballan or Benalla. They do not want stunts for social media or the political theatre that some are trying to engage in in this place. They want real action on the issues that matter to them, and they know that they can only get that action from a Labor government. That is because we have a strong track record of investing in our state’s infrastructure and delivering on the things that matter. Labor has invested nearly $3 billion over the past three years, the largest sustained investment in road maintenance in Victoria’s history. In that time we have averaged $993 million in funding towards maintaining our roads, including rebuilding, repairing and resurfacing arterial roads. Victorians are already seeing the results, with 187,000 potholes removed this year.

We are delivering safer, better roads, and with 20 per cent off rego, we are making it cheaper for everyone to go around. The investment that this Labor government has made is reducing travel disruptions and ensuring people can spend less time worrying about their safety on the roads and more time getting to where they need to go. This is what good governments do: invest in the infrastructure our communities rely on and deliver the outcomes that benefit all Victorians.

The reason I oppose this motion is the fact that this motion is nothing but a stunt that does nothing to address any of the concerns of Victorians. I encourage my colleagues in this chamber to oppose this motion as well.

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:12): I also rise to speak on motion 1526. I want to start by acknowledging some of the words in the motion. It reads:

That this house:

(1)   notes that Victoria’s road network is fundamental to the safety, economic prosperity and connectivity of communities across metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria;

I must add to that that one of the things you do notice when you go to another country – let us just take a place like Singapore – is how well they look after their roads. Their roads are looked after with so much pride because they see that as a symbol of the wealth of their nation. The motion continues:

(2)   acknowledges that Victorians rely on a safe and well-maintained road network for access to employment, education, health care, freight transport, tourism, and emergency services;

Let me just say that out in the south-east, where people have to travel long distances on a regular basis on our roads, they do not have the ability to tolerate the poor conditions, the potholes, that they encounter on a regular basis that do damage to their cars. In 2022 one of our candidates had her car upgraded with new tyres and everything. That very same day her daughter, driving that car, drove through a pothole and blew out two tyres at once.

This is not an unusual event in Victoria. You are not going to convince a single Victorian – those on the other side of the chamber – that you have maintained our roads, because there would not be a single person who drives on our roads and has driven on them from 2022, since you have been in government, until today that has not hit a pothole or had to swerve around a pothole or drive over cracks or avoid cracks or enjoy the weeds and trees that grow alongside the road.

In my region there have been serious consequences as a result of these roads not being properly maintained. We have had many fatalities. One of the more recent and more tragic ones that is well known and documented through the news is that of a 16-year-old boy. It was a 5- to 10-minute drive on Pound Road. He was fatally hit while walking home from school, not far from his home. It was the most tragic loss, with the community coming together. He was on the phone to his father when he said, ‘I’m not far from home,’ and that was the last bit of communication. We also had a fatal accident on the Belgrave-Hallam Road, where a 33-year-old was struck by a car and killed while going on his daily run. Constituents continuously report to me that they have approached their local Labor members of Parliament about this tragic accident and others with disappointing outcomes. Continually this government turns a blind eye to where these fatalities are taking place and does nothing to rectify the situation. The Allan Labor government continue to forget that even one fatality on this road that was caused as a result of their failures to the Victorian people is blood on their hands, and it impacts a whole community. These accidents, these two that I have just mentioned, are well known.

Just recently I was at the intersection of Hallam South and Centre and O’Grady roads in Hallam. In fact I was there on Monday last week. This is a crossroad intersection on a main road in an area that has continual traffic as a result of its workplaces. People in the south-east have to get to their businesses and to their work, yet this government has not installed traffic lights. When they did an upgrade to remove the level crossing, what they forgot, what they failed to do, was to understand the conditions that would take place on the roads and make them unsafe. The traffic used to stop at certain times while waiting for those boom gates, and now that the boom gates have been removed, they do not stop. So people have to try to get through without traffic lights because they have not done proper infrastructure. Where is the actual research that they were supposed to do? They are actually meant to be doing research on the development of roads and anything else that they are upgrading. If they did their job properly, there would be less accidents, there would be some people alive today and there would be families enjoying their family members instead of grieving for those that they have so tragically lost.

In this particular motion, whilst it focuses a lot on regional and rural Victoria, it mentions the deteriorating road conditions, which have, as I have mentioned, increased the likelihood of crashes. It has increased the risk of tyre failures and vehicle damage. In fact talking to constituents, what is just outrageous to me is that some of the businesses actually take that into account. Businesses in Braeside, Carrum Downs and Seaford have said to me that they budget for tyre damage and suspension repairs because they know the roads they rely on are deteriorating. You have to remember that the growth in the south-east has been extraordinary, yet road maintenance has not kept up with the pace. The people who live and work in these communities deserve more than a temporary patch job. Local councils have done community surveys that show that potholes are the number one complaint about roads. The government puts its head in the sand – until we come towards an election, when it wants to look busy and look like it is listening and caring for us. Well, what about those families that have lost their loved ones because you did not do regular maintenance?

If we are going to talk about road maintenance, let us not forget that this is a state that is in debt because of this particular government. It can waste $589 million on the Commonwealth Games with no discernible benefit for the taxpayer, yet it has failed to do proper maintenance on a number of roads in the south-east. I am just going to quickly mention some of them. The South Gippsland Highway should have been widened. It should have been well maintained but is not. If you want to get a tree, come down the road. The Princes Highway – I mean, they are doing little bits here and there, but honestly the Princes Highway still has potholes. Thompsons Road, Pound Road, Hall Road – Pound Road, as I said, is where we have had tragic accidents. They do not look at where pavements are and how pedestrians are meant to walk. They do not consider when they are doing any form of construction or sticking out their witches hats what the impact is going to be on the pedestrians. These things need to be done properly. Heatherton Road, Springvale Road, Police Road, Greens Road, Clyde Road, Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road – and let us not forget what has not yet been developed, Berwick’s Clyde Road. It has not even had its two lanes put in.

Along heavy freight routes in places like Springvale and in the Braeside area, where there is an industrial precinct, in the Mordialloc electorate, we find that residents complain continually about deteriorating road surfaces and potholes as a result of prolonged wet weather and high volumes of trucks that accelerate and cause pavement deterioration. On Lower Dandenong Road, one of the busiest east–west arterials in the Kingston area, we have frequent complaints about rough pavement, patchwork repairs and uneven road surfaces. In fact in the service lane just outside my office there is a big pothole. After I spoke about it in Parliament it was quickly patched up. It was about a foot deep, and no sooner had they patched it up – because they did such a terrible job and waited for such a long time – it was only a week before it sank, so it is still there. It is still a pothole. It might not be as deep as it was before, but because you did such a terrible job it is now a pothole that I have to drive over every time I go to my electorate office, which is often.

Then there is the Carrum electorate. In fact Thompsons Road goes right across a number of electorates that are very important to the Labor Party, and yet they do not consider this busy arterial to be something that they can do something about, with heavy traffic contributing to the pavement wear and to the potholes, which continually have to be repaired. Hall Road, of course, is very congested. There is rapid population growth, and so you have to maintain these roads on a regular basis, otherwise these potholes continue to appear. This never used to happen under a Liberal government, and it will not happen again if the Liberals are elected. Local residents have consistently raised concerns about places like McLeod Road. And let us take Frankston-Dandenong Road – again, a freight corridor. Businesses are constantly reporting damage to vehicles and increased maintenance costs. Frankston-Flinders Road in the Frankston electorate, Cranbourne Road, Skye Road, the highway in Frankston – I mean, the list goes on and on and I am out of time. We need to see changes, and this government has failed Victorians.

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (14:22): I rise to speak on the motion that has been brought before the house that deals with the fundamental safety, economic prosperity and connectivity of communities across Victoria because of the dreadful state that our roads are in. When I read through the full motion that we are debating today, it actually reads very similarly to a letter that I wrote to the minister on 2 July. I wrote this to the minister because I am constantly, together with all of my colleagues, getting up and raising the condition of roads – particularly roads in rural and regional Victoria – in this house and the minister does nothing about them. I wrote this as an open letter to the minister, which I released to the media so the minister might take a little bit more notice of it. Unfortunately, the minister has not responded yet, so I cannot tell you what her response is, but I wrote:

Dear Minister …

I write to you regarding the critically dangerous condition of Victoria’s regional roads.

This situation has become so dire that it demands you act urgently to significantly increase investment in the road repair program, and ensure Victorians have the smooth and safe regional roads they deserve.

Over a decade of Labor neglect has left our road network with massive potholes, crumbling road edges, ripples and large cracks that have gone unrepaired for long periods. It is Victorian motorists who are suffering the consequences as large potholes damage their vehicles by smashing wheel rims and puncturing tyres.

Blowing out a tyre or swerving to avoid a damaged road surface can cause accidents, and the dangerous state of Victoria’s roads is putting lives at risk.

Recent wet weather has exposed the extent of deterioration on our roads. High rainfall has filled many deep potholes with water and hidden them from unsuspecting drivers, while heavy fog has reduced road visibility, leaving motorists unable to see and avoid hazards ahead.

Even our major highways in northern Victoria, including the Hume, Calder, Midland, Maroondah, Murray Valley and Goulburn Valley Highways, have fallen into a state of dangerous disrepair.

Many other state arterial roads also suffer from a lack of maintenance, and are in desperate need of repair and full rehabilitation of the worst sections. These include, but are not limited to, Katamatite–Shepparton Road, Great Alpine Road, Echuca Road, Murchison-Tatura Road, Murray River Road and Benalla-Tocumwal Road. This list is not exhaustive, and my constituents have reported dozens more roads that require urgent attention.

The Labor Government abandoned its responsibility to carry out proper road maintenance over the past 12 years, and this year’s budget once again reduced the amount of road area that will be repaired.

Regional Victorians are disgusted with Labor’s city-centric approach that has left them behind. You must reverse the trend of Labor’s long-term underinvestment, and significantly expand the road repair program.

Yours sincerely,

Wendy Lovell MP

Member for Northern Victoria Region

I wrote that as an open letter, and it has been published in many of the papers throughout northern Victoria because the whole of regional Victoria is sick and tired of Labor neglecting the state of our roads. In regional Victoria roads are fundamental to us having connectivity, whether it be to our local town or whether it be to the capital here in Melbourne, because we do not have adequate public transport. In Shepparton we were promised nine return train services a day back in 2021. It was promised that we would have those by the end of 2023. We were promised we would have five return services on a weekend, but we do not. We still only have five daily services, and I am not sure exactly how many there are on the weekend, but we certainly do not have the five. I think it is four. The lack of train services means overcrowding on the trains, so people are being forced to use their car, but the state of the Goulburn Valley Highway and the Hume Highway is making it extremely dangerous for people who are driving on those roads. We hear daily in our office of people who have blown a tyre or damaged the rim of their vehicle. They are not getting compensated by the government, and yet it is government’s fault because the roads are so bad.

Sonja Terpstra in her contribution blamed the rain for undermining the road surface. Well, the rain only undermines the road surface when the road surface is already bad anyway, and sometimes it is just a lack of maintenance that leads to the road surfaces being undermined. I can tell you the Midland Highway is being undermined because the government does not maintain the safety barriers in the middle of the road. The safety barriers are not only down and not doing their job, but there are trees growing out of them. A little while ago there were some trees that were as tall as me growing in the middle of the road. It was like having another reserve in the middle of the road. I made a video of that and then posted it with Highway to Hell blaring over the top of it. I am told that that actually caused quite a stir in the department, and many of those trees were removed and the barriers repaired at that time. But the barriers have again fallen into a state of disrepair and new trees and shrubs have started to emerge in the middle of the road.

It is not only the maintenance that is lacking in rural and regional Victoria. We are also lacking in investment in new roads and roads that need to be upgraded. There is Donnybrook Road, which Evan Mulholland and I talk about regularly in here. If we do not mention Donnybrook Road every week, there is something wrong, because Donnybrook Road is a disgrace. It is a two-lane – one lane each way – goat track; an old farm road that is now servicing thousands of new residents who have settled into estates on the eastern side of the Hume Freeway. It can take people 45 minutes just to get out of their estate in the morning, let alone get down Donnybrook Road and onto the freeway. There are no footpaths that make it safe for people to walk to the train station. I would not cycle along there; it is a very narrow road and would be extremely dangerous, and it is riddled with potholes. And yet the Labor government are prepared to let people live in those conditions.

The bypass of Shepparton is another case in point where during the floods, the causeway was closed off between Shepparton and Mooroopna. This cut residents of Mooroopna off from many services like the hospital and other services that are located in Shepparton. The bypass has been on the agenda for I think the past 30 years. I was on a committee to get the bypass built before I was a member of Parliament, and here we still are, waiting for something to happen. We need a second river crossing in Shepparton, and we need it sooner rather than later. RACV, of course, have done an analysis of the most dangerous roads in regional Victoria, and these include Calder Highway, Loddon Valley Highway, Mallee Highway, Murray Valley Highway, Northern Highway, McIvor Highway, Pyrenees Highway, Robinvale-Sea Lake Road, Sunraysia Highway, Beechworth-Wangaratta Road, Goulburn Valley Highway, Maroondah Highway, Great Alpine Road, Melba Highway and Midland Highway. (Time expired)

 Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (14:31): I thank everybody for their contributions. Roads are one of the most vital pieces of infrastructure Victoria has. The current state of our roads is a damning indictment of the current government. This is an issue that affects every single electorate in this state. Every single road user has been in some way affected by the deterioration of our roads network. Our cars must be roadworthy, yet our roads are not carworthy. There must be transparency surrounding the maintenance and construction of the road network, because what is being done now is obviously not good enough. The claims process for motorists who have damage to their vehicles caused by failing road surfaces must be made easier, and more must be done to support them in a cost-of-living crisis. This government needs to do the right thing, be transparent and listen to its constituents. Unfortunately, many of the words expressed to me by Victorians regarding our road infrastructure are deemed too fruity for this chamber, according to our President, so I will narrow them down to a final sentence as professionally as possible. Fix the darn roads properly the first time.

Motion agreed to.