Road funding mirage: Budget’s $2.8 billion fund a distant promise

This year’s state budget promises $2.8 billion over 10 years to boost road renewal, but actually cuts funding next year.

Treasurer Tim Pallas announced a $2.8 billion road funding boost in this week’s budget, to be rolled out over the next decade.

But opposition roads spokesman Danny O’Brien accused the Andrews government of “back-ending” most of that funding, when regional Victoria “needs it now”.

Budget papers show base road asset management funding has been cut from $702 million this financial year to $441 million in 2023-24, which Mr O’Brien said was the lowest level since 2016.

Mr Pallas also announced a $674 million road funding blitz, but again the budget papers show just $31.5 million of this will be spent in 2023-24 and nearly all of it will go to Melbourne metropolitan intersection upgrades.

The Department of Transport has even put the brakes on its road maintenance budget, which has also halved, from $103 million this financial year to $50 million in 2023-24.

Across the board soaring debt has forced the Andrews government and its non-financial corporations to halve their infrastructure investment program from $56.4 billion in 2022-23 to $27 billion in the new financial year.

Even the fire services are losing out, with not one cent allocated to new capital projects for the CFA or FRV.

While the budget does not include funding for new trucks or stations, it does include funding for the redevelopment of Kinglake West, Raywood and Yarram stations, plus Victorian State Emergency Services facilities at Bannockburn and Kilmore, and Frankston VICSES’s satellite facility in Skye.

Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria chief executive Adam Barnett said at a rate of three station refurbishments a year it would take 404 years to get around to all stations.

CFA volunteers had been hoping the government would inject some new funds into their ageing tanker fleet, which is the oldest in Australia.

Even the government’s own Fire Services Implementation Monitor Niall Blair found Victoria’s firefighting fleet was “aged beyond useful life”, putting firefighters’ safety at risk.

“Overall it’s very disappointing, given we’ve been on about insufficient capital funding and there’s no new spending on vehicles,” Mr Barnett said.