Coalition promises $5 billion funding boost to fix one million potholes
Victoria’s dilapidated roads will receive a $5 billion funding boost to eliminate 1 million potholes as part of the Coalition’s election promise to rebuild the state’s road maintenance programme.
With less than five months until the state election, Opposition Leader Jess Wilson and National Party leader Danny O’Brien will announce an election pledge on Monday that they say will increase Victoria’s road maintenance budget by 25 per cent from current spending levels.
As part of the policy, the Coalition will pledge to fix the worst potholes across the state and bitumen bombing will be overseen by a new division within the Department for Transport and Planning. Funds will also be allocated for drain cleaning, grass cutting and graffiti removal.
Ahead of the election, the Coalition is trying to capitalize on growing anger in regional areas over deteriorating roads across the state, arguing that the crumbling network is both a safety issue and a cost-of-living burden as motorists face expensive repairs.
Wilson, who visited all 88 voters in the lower house, said the state’s roads were full of dangerous potholes that damaged vehicles.
“Drivers shouldn’t have to pay for flat tyres, cracked rims and worse because Jacinta Allan and Labor fail to get the basics right,” Wilson said.
In 1999 rural voters bitterly opposed the Coalition. Liberal premier Jeff Kennett was unseated at the election and Labor took eight seats in regional Victoria, including Seymour, Bendigo East, Ripon and Ballarat East and West.
But after more than a decade in government, Labour’s popularity is waning amid growing frustration in regional areas over deteriorating roads, extended services and long-standing cost of living concerns.
In the May budget, the Allan government allocated $1 billion for road maintenance.Repair 200,000 potholes.
However, the budget documents of the government We set a goal to patch 74,000 square meters The total area of regional roads this financial year fell to 95,000 square meters compared to the previous year, significantly below the 566,000 square meters completed in 2024-25.
Labor argues that these figures reflect a shift from short-term patching to longer-term resurfacing and rehabilitation works; However, the amount of resurfacing work planned for this financial year is also expected to decrease.
The coalition’s commitment comes as Victoria’s peak agricultural body last week launched a campaign to encourage regional motorists to document and report potholes and road hazards.
Victorian Farmers’ Federation president Ryan Milgate said the reports would help reveal the extent of the state’s deteriorating roads, which he described as “the worst ever”.
“Many of them are literally falling apart, and some are straight up death traps,” Milgate said.
Earlier this month, police Close one lane on the Hume Highway after a large pothole caused serious tire damage to a number of cars north of Seymour.
City of Whittlesea, which includes the suburbs of Epping Mernda and Whittlesea also identified more than 1,000 individuals. defects in the state road network blames the Ministry of Transport and Planning for the worsening conditions.
As part of the coalition’s election promise, greater accountability will be demanded from the ministry and contractors through a review of construction standards and maintenance contracts.
O’Brien, who is also the shadow minister for roads and road safety, stopped to help a P-plate driver whose tire was damaged after hitting a pothole on the Goulburn Valley Highway last week. He said the state’s roads had become “goat tracks.”
“The Victorians are fed up with half-hearted patchworks that are rapidly falling apart,” O’Brien said.
He said regional areas receive less than 12 percent of infrastructure spending despite making up 25 percent of the state’s population.
The coalition’s pledge comes a day after the Allan government announced plans to crack down on unlicensed used car dealers and odometer tampering; The research found that almost a third of sampled used cars advertised online had odometers rewound by at least 25,000 kilometres.
