1 May 2026
Labors $1 billion road announcement a “spin job” as regional roads crumble
Labor’s road blitz announcement is a $1 billion admission of failure, says Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland.
Ms Cleeland has slammed Premier Jacinta Allan’s $1.04 billion road maintenance announcement as election spin, not new investment.
The announcement follows Minister for Roads confirmation the government was already spending close to a billion dollars a year on roads, which Ms Cleeland said exposed the announcement as a marginal increase on a network that had been neglected for years.
Despite the headline figure, Ms Cleeland said roads across regional Victoria remain in a state of disrepair, with crumbling shoulders and potholes damaging vehicles on a daily basis.
Key freight routes, including the Goulburn Valley Highway, Midland Highway and the broader north-east road network were among the worst in Victoria.
“Labor continues to blame the 2022 floods, but more than four years on, they have failed to properly repair our road network,” Ms Cleeland said.
“Large sections of our roads were never flood affected, and yet they’ve still been left to deteriorate.”
Ms Cleeland said the funding barely kept pace with inflation and failed to undo years of underinvestment.
“For my communities, roads are not optional infrastructure, they carry freight, farm machinery, school buses and emergency services across vast distances – critical to our lives,” she said.
“When they our in poor condition, dangerous and unsafe, they have a significant impact on our day to day lives.”
She said the rising number of motorists seeking compensation for vehicle damage showed just how widespread the problem had become, with too many families left out of pocket because of the dangerous condition of the roads.
“This isn’t a pothole problem. It’s a neglect problem,” Ms Cleeland said.