THE State Government has defended its spending on rural roads as several Opposition MPs continue to shine a spotlight on crumbling thoroughfares throughout Victoria.
Responding to an article in last week’s Casterton News, a State Government spokesperson insisted it was maintaining a record of increased investment – despite the culling of what is believed to be 20 jobs from Regional Roads Victoria’s (RRV) Geelong office.
“Our record is clear – we have delivered more investment in regional roads than ever before – keeping regional Victorians moving and providing safer and more reliable journeys,” she said.
The government said it was spending $780 million on road maintenance in the upcoming financial year – the figure is specifically labelled in the 2022-2023 budget papers as the “expected road maintenance output and asset expenditure”.
When questioned about the reported mass departure of senior staff from RRV’s Geelong office, the spoksperson said there had been a restructure of staffing roles within the Department of Transport, which includes RRV – but refused to be drawn on exactly “why?” or whether any of those staff had been allocated to other RRV offices.
“This restructure is not a cut – we continue to deliver record maintenance funding and hundreds of projects across regional Victoria,” she said.
According to the government, the restructure was enacted in April following a consultation period which ran late last year and was focused on delivering a “more integrated” transport system.
It said changes were primarily made to reporting structures and had minimal effect on the number of staff, although several staff voluntarily took early retirement packages during the transition.
The government also specified it had no plans to privatise the agency.
RRV, which was established shortly before the last election in 2018, was last week labelled “nothing more than a branding exercise” for the government by Shadow Roads Minister, Steph Ryan.
The official allocated funding for road asset management announced in this year’s budget is $592.7 million – its lowest level since 2015 after the last change in government.
While the government spokesperson told CN that the previous Liberal Government cut funding during its tenure from 2010 to 2014, all road asset management output costs in State Budgets from those years were higher than the figures from budgets prior to the Coalition’s ascent to government.
Road funding peaked in the 2020-2021 financial year, with a target of $807.4 million and actual funding of $822.5 million.
According to budget papers, this year’s lower target reflected the prioritisation of additional investment into road restoration and renewal activity, which was treated as asset funding.
The government spokesperson told CN nearly $755 million was being invested in maintaining Victorian roads in the 2021-2022 financial year, with the majority of the investment allocated for regional Victoria and the government was delivering more than 1500 kilometres of rebuilding and repair works statewide with more than 1100 maintenance and renewal projects targeting regional roads.
She also said it had replaced 30,000 signs and mowed 30,000 kilometres of roadside grass during its maintenance “blitz” and the works were on top of “life-saving” infrastructure investment already rolling out in Victoria, including a $457.57 million targeting safety upgrades on the state’s roads with Federal support.
She said the government would continue to support the greater south-west region of Victoria, with several programs targeting key arterial highways and geotechnical upgrades to inland roads.
Portland’s Bridgewater Road and Portland Ring Road were the only roads in the Glenelg Shire area mentioned to be earmarked for upgrades as part of a $101 million program for regional roads in this year’s State Budget, while the Glenelg Highway was among the major routes targeted in several individual maintenance projects.
The government’s comments to CN came as the Opposition continued to push a campaign encouraging locals to highlight roads in poor condition in an online survey.
Interim results in the three-month campaign launched in April found the most voted-for roads statewide were not in western Victoria, while Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road and Glenelg Highway were identified as the local area’s most dangerous.
The survey will develop a priority list for the Oppotition to present to Victorian Roads Minister, Ben Carroll, in a bid to increase funding to fix more rural roads.
Roads funding has been heavily criticised by the Opposition since May’s State Budget, with Lowan MP, Emma Kealy, stating the government had “wasted” an opportunity for significant investment in a “crucial” issue for regional Victoria, while large-scale transport project costs in Melbourne blew out.
“The shocking state of Victoria’s roads is an economic drain on our state and we can’t afford to be continually pushed down the list,” she said.
“So many of our roads are in desperate need of repair to make them safe and usable.”
