A CHUCKLE was the response from Federal Agricultural minister, Murray Watt recently, to the suggestion south west Victoria’s roads urgently warrants an investment of $1.5 billion.
The notion was posed to the minister at the Rural Press Club breakfast in Melbourne in October in the context that the network of roads in south west Victoria carried Australia’s largest agricultural production region, which is dominated by dairy, beef and sheep industries and supplies 14 per cent of Victoria’s fresh seafood - thus deserving of a fairer portion.
Minister Watt was unmoved by the concept of relativity, balked at the figure and said it was too early to make such an “election commitment”.
Unlike his former state counterpart the previous premier, Daniel Andrews, who spent billions on Melbourne roads and infrastructure projects with the Metro Tunnel blowing out by tens of billions of dollars.
Andrews’ successor, Premier Allan has immediately picked up the mantle and continued with the commitment to upgrade the level crossing with so far, 72 removed with 110 to be gone by 2030, to boost safety and ease congestion.
She wasted no time in recommitting to the Victorian Government’s focus on city-centric projects with her announcement in October to boost tram stop accessibility and passenger safety, with 12 more level-access tram stops to be built along La Trobe Street in the Melbourne CBD from next year.
Since 2014, the Victorian Government has delivered 83 level-access tram stops, in addition to making the largest ever investment in new trams - $1.85 billion to procure 100 low-floor Next Generation Trams and a new tram maintenance and stabling facility.
Yet, Allan’s Federal colleague recoiled at the idea of comparable funding for our region, despite our productivity and contribution to the nation’s economy -seven of Australia’s top ten agricultural regions are in Victoria.
Our key industries are critical to food security with food and fibre producers in our region having long been the backbone of our local communities, with the south west a particular agricultural powerhouse of our entire state.
Broadacre cropping contributed $739 million in commodity production in the south-west.
The entire agricultural industry in Victoria’s south-west region accounts for over 21 per cent of all jobs, drives 60 per cent of the regional economy and contributes over $3bn in annual Gross Regional Product.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ figures on the gross value of agricultural regions reinforces the region’s fiscal contribution to the national economy finding that out of 50 Natural Resource Management Areas, ranking at the top was Glenelg Hopkins Catchment management Authority while Corangamite agricultural producers ranked at number eight, contributing over $4.6 billion in production over the 2019-20 period.
Even in the context of animal welfare during truck transportation, the view that animals are at risk on poorly maintained and dangerous roads didn’t raise the same concern and standards demanded for live export sea voyages from Australia.
The regularity with which there are livestock truck rollovers due to poor and narrow roads, broken edges with arched cambers across the south west, fortunately, mostly leaving the drivers uninjured, all too often renders quantities of livestock dead and dying with hundreds injured requiring immediate euthanising.
The Australian Government has invested heavily into the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS).
Moreover, before we set our lofty funding sights on regulatory challenges of decarbonising the road transport economy, could we not ensure the surface on which they travel is at least up to scratch? Especially given “some interesting developments in the use of methanol in shipping and air modes, which may end up transitioning to heavy road freight” according to the Australian Trucking Association (ATA).
Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano was in the south west recently travelling on the Hamilton Highway near Mortlake.
So appalled by the conditions of the roads she uploaded a short video to social media and described the roads as “death traps”.
“There are ruts on the roads as if the roads are made of mud,” Ms Germano said.
“I’m talking about ruts that are 20 to 30 centimetres deep.”
“I say that I’m shocked, but I shouldn’t be shocked (because) the VFF has been talking about the terrible state of the roads here in regional Victoria.”
“Country people are dying on country roads, 50 per cent of the road fatalities are happening on these roads, these things are death traps and it’s about time we had some action and some funding put towards it.”
Meanwhile, Australian trucks are about to be manufactured five centimetres wider, with the Federal Government’s decision to do so, welcomed by the Australian ATA, thus enabling more cattle on each truck.
Through the ATA, TruckSafe accreditation satisfies an increasing trend of customers requiring their suppliers to have risk management systems.
Yet, accountability for accreditation of adequate road surfaces by government leaves a lot to be desired.
$1.5 billion would go a long way in widening and strengthening the deplorable south west road network to carry live cargo.
“It’s a bit early to make an election commitment like that,” Minister Watt said.
But the election cycle of promises just doesn’t wash anymore along with the subsistence of asphalt on our local roads that are riddled with potholes, craters, crumbling edges, and single lanes that are often too narrow for the freight they are expected to carry across the south west.
For decades now, our local roads have become an easy can to kick down the road between State, Federal and local governments.
Instead, all we have is intermittent piecemeal pots, albeit conceded hundreds of thousands proffered at certain points in the election cycle, fixing only specific sections, and only in part.
Since February 2023 across the south west road network, the Department of Transport and Planning said they have filled in a total of 5072 potholes.
The repair works covered almost 5000 square metres of road surfaces with more than 13,000 still to be undertaken in coming months.
But as one regular road user said, “what’s the point in fixing a couple of kilometres perfectly if you then wreck your tyres or worse get killed, driving through a pothole on the next section of a terrible road?”
Wannon MP, Dan Tehan recently endorsed the Australian Automobile Association’s Data Saves Lives campaign, which called on the Federal Government to require all states and territories to release data as a condition of receiving their share of its annual $10 billion a year road budget.
This was well timed given hundreds of kilometres of roads throughout Wannon received the lowest safety rating of one or two stars by the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP).
The Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road is one such State Government road that carries a significant portion of agricultural freight as a 75-kilometre carriageway gazetted for b-double and road train use.
Although it has received some funding and some parts have been upgraded, the entire length of this road needs to be properly fixed to adequately carry produce.
One local truck driver said, “there’s vehicles on this road all the time - but it’s not fit for purpose”.
Given the district’s contribution as Victoria’s largest food and fibre region by value to the economy, in a globally competitive market, major improvements to this road alone, are long overdue.
Minister Watt mentioned betterment concept in roads bridges and footpaths in his preamble and indicated he recognised the issue of the poor roads and said “yes I do talk already with my colleagues in particular the infrastructure minister Catherine King bout the needs around roads and infrastructure because that is the life blood of rural community and the lifeblood of the agriculture sector”.
“To keep those supply chains running well and efficiently – it is something we are working on.
“We don’t want to get in a situation where particular parts of the country are being neglected because that reduces social amenity and it’s not good economically.”
