Ricky Muir (Victoria, Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the time of writing this motion there was a significant stalemate between the Victorian state government and the federal government in relation to the $1.5 billion unspent allocations for the East West Link. I understand that in recent time there has been some conversations between the parties but no outcome as of yet. My motion acknowledges that only 30 per cent of the population lives in rural and regional Australia yet over 50 per cent of road fatalities occur in these areas. It was my intention to encourage all sides of government to consider the increasingly poor conditions of rural roads and the subsequent fatality rate and to spend the unspent allocations on upgrading rural roads, where the funding is desperately needed for safety reasons, not just congestion.

I acknowledge the federal Black Spot Program and Roads to Recovery program and note the increased allocations of funding over coming years. However, the need to repair many rural roads is more immediate. I had encouraged the public to send in pictures of damaged rural roads to visually highlight the issue. There is a large amount of interest, and I am still receiving them. I will continue to collect these pictures and will table them at a later date.