The Minns Labor Government’s so-called ‘road repair blitz’ across regional NSW is little more than business-as-usual maintenance that won’t help councils make much-needed repairs to the roads used by their communities every day.
Shadow Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, Dave Layzell, said more targeted spending is needed, like The Nationals’ hugely successful Fixing Local Roads, Fixing Country Bridges, and Fixing Country Roads programs.
“The only way councils can deal with potholes is by having the money to spend, which is why The Nationals fast tracked $280 million into their bank accounts before the election, on top of announcing the very first dedicated $50 million pothole repair program,” Mr Layzell said.
“Those vital initiatives were scrapped under Labor, forcing communities to now rely on maintenance money, which should be getting rolled out on top of other measures anyway.
“The pothole repair program was there to help every regional council across the state carry out emergency works, allowing them to build back faster following drought, fires and floods.”
The funding under the Fixing Local Roads Pothole Repair Round was available to 95 regional councils and authorities to fix more than 420,000 potholes on their roads.
Mr Layzell said it was one of many programs that made a real difference.
“That support gave councils and their communities the ability to stay on top of and enhance their local road networks, which is clearly no longer a priority under the Minns Labor Government.
“The Nationals delivered a $19.4 billion regional road and transport infrastructure pipeline, to build legacy road infrastructure and transform travel in the regions, including fixing roads following natural disasters like we’ve just seen in the North Coast and Hunter regions.
“It was The Nationals that put the focus back on regional roads, making it a top priority while we were in government, and we need Labor to do the same instead of packaging up maintenance money and trying to sell it as something it’s not.”
