Two local Country Fire Authority (CFA) groups representing numerous brigades have said the poor road quality is now impacting emergency services organisations being able to deliver timely and safe responses and has asked the Roads Minister if she will take responsibility for any fatal or serious injury collisions that occur on roads in Far East Gippsland.

Nationals Gippsland East MP, Tim Bull, used his final speech in Parliament to ask Roads Minister, Melissa Horne, three questions that were motions from a local meeting of the Orbost and Mount Delegate Fire Brigade Groups. These were:

• The previous federal government committed funding to repair the Mallacoota-Genoa Road, which has not been undertaken. When will these funds be expended on this severely deteriorated, but vitally important road?
• Will the Minister accept a degree of responsibility for any fatal or serious injury collisions that occur on the Mallacoota-Genoa Road; and the Princes, Bonang and Monaro Highways due to neglect on the Minister’s watch?
• What financial, physical and emotional cost should those who are forced to travel on unsafe country roads, consider acceptable; to enable a replication of public transport and road network under the Melbourne metropolitan area?

Mr Bull said the local CFA groups made a number of other pertinent points in their correspondence, all of which he agreed with, and included:

That over the past several years, there has been a significant decline in the quality and safety of the roads throughout our region. This decline in quality is now impacting emergency services organisations to deliver a timely and safe response and is also causing undue wear and tear on appliances, some of which are over 30 years old.

Roads such as the Mallacoota-Genoa Road, Bonang, Princes and Monaro Highways have become increasingly difficult to navigate due to dangerously severe potholes, uneven surfaces, and deteriorating signage. Coming into a high transient tourist season, this increases the likelihood and severity of high speed, high impact collisions.

That historically, the Victorian road network was superior to and the envy of New South Wales. Now, there is a discernible difference when you cross the border. The difference is not favourable. The degraded road surface along the Monaro and Princes Highways from the border has deteriorated so much, it has caused the speed limit to be reduced in places to 40km.

There has already been a noticeable increase in motorbikes using Bonang Highway as a destination ride. With the lack of repairs, maintenance and safety railings, safety of all road users has been compromised.

We understand that infrastructure maintenance is an ongoing challenge across regional Victoria, but the current state of the roads in East Gippsland has reached a critical point.

Although the Government has by choice undertaken an extensive tunnelling and other major infrastructure projects, this should not come at the cost of maintaining our existing road network, that supports the transport industry, tourists and locals alike.

Mr Bull said the two brigade groups were simply articulating what many in the region knew and highlighted matters many country Victorian MPs, including himself, have raised in Parliament on a number of occasions, that our roads are as bad as they have been for decades.

“The bottom line is, when you cut roads funding to the level this government has, it can only end one way. It is a symptom of not being able to manage the State’s finances and we all pay the price,” he said.

Monday, 23 December 2024