Grain growers demand road funding boost

Urgent funding is needed to repair a regional road network “at breaking point”, while cash for key grain freight access routes has been reduced.

Urgent funding is needed to repair key freight access routes and a regional road network “at breaking point”, according to GrainGrowers.

Roads broken by extreme wet weather events and flooding across inland Australia have compounded issues faced by grain farmers in recent months, with headers still in paddocks after a delayed harvest.

It comes as key Victorian grain freight routes face almost $185 million in federal road maintenance funding cuts.

GrainGrowers chair Rhys Turton said the situation has not only created significant productivity issues across the agriculture industry, but also safety issues for rural communities.

“Our regional road network is at breaking point. Hundreds of roads remain closed months after the floods because of insufficient funding and we are seeing many recently patched roads crumbling again,” he said.

“Already facing skyrocketing fuel prices, many of our members are having to drive much longer routes because the roads are so bad which is adding significant extra grain freight costs.”

GrainGrowers President and mixed grains farmer Rhys Turton has called for increased regional roads funding. Picture: AAP Image/Richard Wainwright

Mr Turton said “rather than just patching potholes” critical sections of the national road network required long-term strategic planning and investment, including the Hume, Newell, Calder and Western Highways connecting farms to markets.

He also said additional roads and infrastructure funding was urgently required in this year’s budget.

Potholes, cracked bitumen, broken shoulders and flying debris have been blamed for a spike in damage to trucks on regional roads.

Meanwhile, figures provided to Senate estimates showed federal funding has been reduced on key Victorian grain freight routes, including:

$60 million for the Goulburn Valley Highway;

$41 million for the Green Triangle;

$26 million for the Melbourne-to-Mildura Calder Highway corridor;

$25 million for the Ballarat-to-Ouyen corridor of the Sunraysia Highway;

$23 million for the Western Highway from Stawell to the South Australian border; and

$8.9 million for the Murray Valley Highway between Echuca and Robinvale.

Infrastructure department assistant secretary Robert Bradley told estimates the reductions were earmarked for future priorities and no funding had been taken away from projects that were contracted or under construction.

Funding for regional roads and rail across Australia has been slashed by $1.2 billion over the next four years, although the Albanese Government maintains regional Australians will be better off in the long-term after a promised $4 billion infrastructure spend increase over the next decade.