Labor’s new ‘bold plan’ – a website – will do nothing to fix country roads in East Gippsland, according to Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull.
“Rather than reinstate the roads funding it has cut, Daniel Andrews spent money on creating a website to identify the broken road surfaces and potholes his funding cuts have created,” Mr Bull said.
“On coming to government, Mr Andrews slashed the road asset management budget and completely removed the $160 million Country Roads and Bridges Program, started by the former Liberal-National Coalition and that delivered $4m directly to both East Gippsland and Wellington Shires.
“People don’t want or need a webpage to tell them how many potholes they have to avoid on country roads – they just want the roads fixed.
“I am regularly contacted by constituents who are concerned about the condition of our road network and they know this website will do nothing to improve it.”
Mr Bull said the new webpage comes at a time when many people hold serious concerns about the installation of wire rope barriers on the Princes Highway between Stratford and Bairnsdale and on Paynesville Road.
“First we had wire rope barriers jammed down our throats with next to no consultation, and now we have a website showing how many potholes our roads contain. If you didn’t know any better you would think this policy idea without any money behind it, was from an episode from The Hollowmen.
“East Gippslanders are not that easily conned and it’s time the Government actually got on with the job of properly repairing our roads.”
Caption: Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, says a new website launched by the Andrews Labor Government will not fix country roads, and that more needs to be done to repair the local network.
Thursday, December 7, 2017
