The Victorian Greens say Labor’s $893 million road upgrade announcement can’t paper over a collapse in major road patching, which has fallen by more than 60 per cent in a year, with regional Victoria hit hardest.
The Department of Transport and Planning’s annual report shows 234,000 square metres of road was patched in 2025-26, down from 609,000. Regional patching fell 68 per cent, from 566,000 to 181,000 square metres, meaning regional communities bore the full brunt of it, even as Labor says 70 per cent of this year’s maintenance funding goes to regional roads.
The Victorian Greens say the outsourcing of road maintenance, which began under Kennett and continued under Labor, has stripped the public sector of the workforce and expertise needed to maintain roads properly. Labor has now promised only to develop a plan to bring maintenance back in-house if re-elected, after 12 years in government and a cut to its own patching targets in the May budget.
The Greens will push for an urgent inquiry to provide a clear roadmap for bringing both road maintenance and VicRoads back into public hands.
As stated by Deputy Leader of the Victorian Greens, Sarah Mansfield MLC:
“Regional Victorians drive the longest distances on the worst roads, and they’ve been left with the biggest cuts. A funding announcement a month out from an election doesn’t fix that.
“Labor and the Liberals have spent decades outsourcing our road maintenance, and now Victorians are paying the price with crumbling roads.
“Instead of maintaining roads properly, we’re paying private companies to patch the same problems over and over again.”
As stated by Victorian Greens spokesperson for Public Transport and Roads, Katherine Copsey MLC:
“Labor’s pre-election cash splash won’t undo decades of damage. They cut their own patching targets, and now they’re promising a plan to fix it.
“We need to rebuild our public workforce and bring road maintenance back into public hands, so Victorians stop paying more for worse roads.”
