Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I'm launching a petition calling on the Albanese Labor government to invest in Australia's, and Victoria's, road network. The lack of funding and the cutting to maintenance across our road network are seeing our road network collapse before our eyes. It's collapsing before our eyes, and it is a shame. Once again, all it goes to show is that the Albanese Labor government has its priorities wrong. What it should be doing is immediately investing in our rural road network, in particular. How, in good conscious, can you be cutting funding to our regional and rural roads?

I hear an interjection from the minister for infrastructure. Why won't you fund the Princes Highway on an 80-20 ratio? Why have you dropped that back to a fifty-fifty ratio? That means that you are cutting road funding on that major network that runs right through my electorate. It's not only that; we're seeing the Victorian state government reduce maintenance funding by 95 per cent. It's a disaster, and the real concern and the real worry is it is starting to cost people's lives. We're starting to see the road toll increase. You need to fix our road network starting today. Do it now.