Victoria's road crisis sparks clash over prisoners versus billions for pothole fixes
Labor proposes using minimum-security inmates for basic road work, while the opposition vows billions to repair the state's worst potholes.
Victoria's failing road network has become a central issue in the upcoming state election, with Labor unveiling a scheme to employ minimum-security prisoners for routine roadside maintenance, aiming to free professional crews for larger repairs. The Liberal and National parties counter with a pledge to spend billions on regional upgrades and to remediate one million of the worst potholes, framing road repair as a key election promise.
Recent events underscore the urgency: a man died and a woman was hospitalized after a tree fell on their car in the High Country, and the City of Whittlesea identified over a thousand defects on state-owned roads, including potholes and damaged guardrails. Although the state has earmarked more than $1 billion for road upkeep, critics note that spot-patching on regional roads has been sharply scaled back. Federal and state Labor support could boost funding, but the debate continues over the most effective strategy to restore Victoria's highways, especially the better-maintained Hume Freeway compared with its NSW counterpart.
