Tempers simmer over speed limits

The deteriorating condition of many country Victorian roads and the issues it generates continues to fuel passionate political debate.

The State Government and Opposition are at loggerheads over a management approach to the issue.

Nationals leader Peter Walsh and Member for Lowan Emma Kealy have been particularly scathing in their criticism.

At the core of debate are proposals to reduce speed limits on targeted regional arterial roads as part of a statewide road-network assessment.

The Coalition has claimed the government has used speed-limit reductions in mitigating road dangers to veil a failure to maintain and repair roads.

It has also argued that funding shortfalls to maintain roads are the result of broad financial mismanagement.

Ms Kealy said ‘cost blowouts from mismanagement of city projects would go a long way to fixing roads’.

“Reducing speed limits doesn’t fill potholes, doesn’t fill cracks and certainly doesn’t stop roads completely falling apart; it just means the government has to do less,” she said.

“This is a lazy and arrogant decision by the government, which demands cars be roadworthy but does nothing to ensure roads are carworthy.”

The government, meanwhile, has responded by accusing the Coalition of using the issue for ‘cheap political point-scoring’.

Case by case

A ‘government spokesperson’, from Labor’s media team and responding to the Coalition position, said there were ‘no plans for blanket 80kmh speed reductions on arterial country roads’.

“Local roads change at the request of the local council, and any speed limit changes will continue to be assessed on a case by case basis,” they said.

“Once again, this is cheap political point-scoring by the Victorian Liberal and National parties on the important issue of reducing the number of lives lost on our roads.

“A bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into the road toll recommended the speed limit on all rural and regional roads undergo a review – including support from a Liberal member and the Transport Matters Party.”

Ms Kealy: “Labor cut the road-maintenance budget by 25 percent last year and now, because of crumbling roads and potholes, plans to drop speed limits on country roads to 80kmh. It’s not rocket science: fix country roads, and you will save country lives,” she said.

“What makes this decision even harder to take is at the same time as maintenance funds are cut to just $617-million, we are seeing $52-billion being spent on four city-based transport projects.

“Even more infuriating is the $6-billion in cost over-runs on West Gate Tunnel and Melbourne Metro projects.”

The State Government’s position was that speed-limit reviews considered factors including types of road users, the surrounding road environment, crash risk and history, council recommendation, community sentiment and traffic volume to ensure set speed limits are appropriate.

It also claimed it had crews assessing road-network safety and conditions daily and providing ‘an unprecedented’ program of road upgrades and maintenance ‘making thousands of kilometres of Victorian roads safer and more reliable’.

But Ms Kealy remained unconvinced, adding the government announced it supported moves to reduce speed limits on some rural roads from recommendations from a parliamentary committee that had a Labor majority.