Rural roads crisis: $4.75b made available by Albanese government to fix local roads

More cash is coming to fix up pothole-infested local roads, but those in charge will have to wait to see the extra funding. Find out why.

Cash-strapped regional councils will have to wait until the middle of next year for extra cash to fix pothole-ruined roads to hit their bank accounts.

The Albanese Labor government has made available an additional $4.75 billion to repair local roads made even worse by last year’s floods.

But councils won’t get their hands on the money from the beefed-up Roads to Recovery program until after next year’s federal budget.

Municipal Association of Victoria president David Clark said the money was a “real game-changer” for regional councils.

“I think most of them are around $2 or $3 million behind each year on what they are supposed to be spending,” he said.

“It’s not the whole answer, but it is certainly a really good start.”

As far as the wait for money, Mr Clark said: “It’s the way government works.

“It’s got to go through a budget and those sort of things.

“It may be that we can get some projects sorted as construction season for a lot of that work will not be until the second half of next year.”

Shadow Infrastructure Minister Bridget McKenzie. Picture: Martin Ollman

Shadow Infrastructure Minister Bridget McKenzie said local road users had waited too long already.

“Regional Australians who have had their cars and trucks damaged, bounced off roads or tires shredded over the past 18 months have filled our Facebook pages with horror stories of crumbling and unsafe roads,” she said.

“The deterioration of our roads largely due to prolonged wet weather and floods last year has created millions of potholes leading to accidents and serious damage to vehicles.

“Action needed to be taken more than a year ago.

“This is the number one complaint from people who live in regional Victoria.

“All we have is a promise to ‘gradually’ lift funding over the next four years, starting with next year’s budget.”

A total of 335,546 potholes were fixed in Victoria last financial year with the repairs on regional and rural roads falling short of target by 25.6 per cent.

Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King. Picture: Martin Ollman

Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said the delays in councils accessing the money was a deliberate measure to prevent additional pressures on inflation.

“We want to do this in a sensible way, a way in which will make sure we don’t add to inflation, we don’t create further problems with our labour market shortages,” she said.

“But we want to make sure we double and increase the amount of money going to our local roads.”