Tuesday, 11 August 2026

 Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (14:09): (2477) My question is to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. Gippsland motorists are sick of the excuse that Victoria’s pothole crisis is due to rain. Rain is not a new phenomenon. On the Princes Highway near Bunyip yesterday in West Gippsland there was a pile-up due to vehicles being damaged due to potholes. Precious police resources had to be deployed for emergency traffic management. The M1 at Moe has potholes. The M1 at Traralgon East, which has only been open for 18 months, is disintegrating and riddled with potholes. The South Gippsland Highway is a dangerous goat track of potholes, and while Labor ministers and members make ludicrous statements about regional people liking potholes, families and communities and tradies in my electorate are fed up with this situation. Minister, why have you allowed these roads to become so disintegrated, and why don’t you adopt Danny O’Brien’s four-year, $5 billion, 1-million-pothole policy and get stuff done?