Fair go for bush

Call to revive roads board

REGIONAL Victoria needs the Country Roads Board (CRB) to be reinstated, a crossbench MP says.

Thirty-five years after the body was dissolved, Western Victoria MP James Purcell said clear delineation was needed between regional and metropolitan road funding, with rural thoroughfares missing out on state cash.

The Vote1 Local Jobs leader has called for the public to make submissions to a state inquiry into VicRoads before its Monday deadline. Victoria’s law reform, road and community safety committee is undertaking a parliamentary probe into VicRoads’ effectiveness in managing rural roads.

“I am not intending to compare the state of the road network under the CRB to the road network now or to extrapolate any results,” Mr Purcell said. “But when we did have the CRB, our roads were in better condition because the board’s role was to concentrate on country roads and not get mixed up in political chases for money throughout the rest of the state.

“We all know times have changed, but the stress on our roads has increased.”

The Cain government abolished the CRB and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) in July 1983. The CRB was replaced with the Road Construction Authority (RCA).

Six years later, the RCA and Road Traffic Authority merged to become the Roads Corporation, which has traded as VicRoads since.

Former Upper House MP Rod Mackenzie, who represented the Geelong region from 1979-92, said the CRB was well-regarded for its road maintenance and workplace relations.

But State Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said: “We’ve doubled spending on road maintenance since we came to office and we’ve overhauled the way VicRoads does business, making sure country communities get the road work they need.”