South-west roads in among worst in state, urgent action needed says MP

Mr Tehan said he was disappointed but not surprised hundreds of kilometres of roads across the Wannon electorate received the lowest safety rating of one or two stars by the Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP).

Included in the low ratings were some sections of the Princes Highway, which have a one or two rating.

He said he was forced to use Freedom of Information laws to compel the state government to hand over data about the poor quality of local roads.

"The data should be made public and Australians should not have to use FOI laws to obtain it," Mr Tehan said.

"Since I was elected, I have been campaigning for more funding to improve our local roads.

"This data confirms that the state Labor Government has ignored Wannon and that's putting lives at risk."

Mr Tehan said the majority of funding for roads was going to Melbourne.

"The Labor government should publish this data for the whole of Victoria so that taxpayers and voters can see the quality of the roads in this state," he said.

"Transparency will lead to accountability. The people of Wannon are rightly angry about the state of their roads.

"Death, trauma and traffic congestion would all be significantly reduced if the Australian government made data-driven road funding decisions instead of ad-hoc and potentially politically motivated decisions."

Mr Tehan said the dire state of south-west roads was one of the biggest concerns for Wannon constituents.

He said he had pleaded with the federal government to commit to no further cuts to funding for south-west roads.

Mr Tehan said the federal government should make state governments release the results of road audits.

"The Albanese government is cutting funding to roads and people can't understand why that is happening," Mr Tehan said.

He said south-west residents also deserved answers on the outcome of the federal government's infrastructure review.

Mr Tehan said motorists were being hit with repair bills after using roads.

"It is adding to people's cost of living," he said.

"Every time a pothole is hit, every time a car veers off the side of a road because it has eroded, every time someone punctures a tyre, damages a rim or affects their suspension - whether it be cars, motor bikes or trucks - it adds to the cost of living and the cost of doing business.

"Enough is enough: this needs to be fixed. But it's not only about providing certainty about how much funding the Albanese Labor government is going to provide for roads."

Some of the south-west roads which have a vehicle star rating of one in some sections include the Hopkins Highway, the Great Ocean Road, Birregurra Deans-Marsh Road, Birregurra-Forrest Road, Lavers Hill-Cobden Road, Cobden-Port Campbell Road, Cobden-Warrnambool Road, Timboon-Colac Road, Bridgewater Road and Portland-Nelson Road.

A spokeswoman for the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Carol Brown said road safety was the responsibility of all levels of government.

"The road safety strategy and action plan is supported by each state and territory governments as well as local governments through the Australian Association of Local Governments and the federal government," she said.

The spokeswoman said the federal government had - for the first time - made improving road safety data one of two guiding principles of the National Road Safety Action Plan 2023-24.

"The other guiding principle is research," she said.

"The action plan includes measures to progress the development of a nationally consistent, shared set of road safety data. This includes a commitment by the Australian Government to develop a National Road Safety Data Collection and Reporting Framework and minimum national data set."

The spokeswoman said the federal government would continue to work closely with the state government to identify and fund priority infrastructure and road safety projects.

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