Thursday, 10 September 2026

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (09:57): The Liberals have pledged to invest $5 billion to repair a million potholes, fix Victoria’s road crisis and bring back a proper maintenance program that stops potholes occurring in the first place. But it is not enough to just fix the problems with state arterial roads. Many local roads and bridges maintained by councils also need work, but councils cannot afford to fix them because Labor has cost-shifted so many things to local government authorities, forcing them to do more with less. As a result, council budgets are under strain, especially in rural and regional Victoria, and they cannot afford to carry out all the capital works that need to be done. That is why the Liberals have announced a $288 million country roads and bridges program. Under this program, each of Victoria’s 48 rural and regional councils will receive $1.5 million every year for four years in untied funding for councils to spend as they see fit to fix local roads and bridges. Twenty-four councils in my electorate of Northern Victoria Region will receive a combined $144 million. That will allow local communities to give feedback on their highest priorities and let local governments invest the funds into the most appropriate local projects, instead of competing for state government grants. Providing reliable funding will allow councils to do forward planning with more certainty, and it will save time and money that is currently being spent on filling out paperwork for grant applications.