ADJOURNMENT

Mr TEHAN (Wannon) (19:39): The ABC had a very interesting article online last Friday. What they did was put in an FOI request to the Victorian state government about how many claims had been lodged with the department of transport by those people who'd driven through potholes or across rough edges of roads or through parts where the pavement has just deteriorated beyond belief and how many of those claims had actually resulted in settlement.

You know the Victorian state government talks a lot about transparency and how they are very keen to make sure those people who might be impacted by the deteriorating roads can put in these claims. Yet thanks to the ABC last Friday what we found out was 1,709 claims had been put in. These were notices lodged.

That's people who have seen rims damaged or broken, tyres torn up or even worse damage to their cars who have taken the effort to say, 'This was not my fault; this was your fault, VicRoads, Victorian state government, and I want to lodge a claim so I can get some compensation for that.' Guess how many resulted in a settlement? Twenty-three—1,709 claims went in, and 23 resulted in a settlement.

If you want to hear that in percentage figures, that's 1.3 per cent. What a miserable, miserable government, seriously. People damaged their cars, their vehicles, their rims and their tyres because you will not fix the roads.

You say to them, 'If damage is done, put in for a claim.' They go to that effort, and what you do is settle 1.3 per cent. No wonder Victorians have had enough of this Victorian state Labor government. Over two-thirds of the hazards that form the basis of the claims across the notices—that's 73 per cent—were described as pavement or surface defects.

Because they were described as pavement or surface defects, they said, 'Sorry, your claim does not resonate.' How does that make any sense? The roads deteriorate beyond belief, and people drive over them and have their cars seriously damaged, yet they come back and say, 'Sorry, we're not paying you out, because this is a pavement or surface defect.' That's what the claims are meant to be there for, when the Victorian state government haven't done their job, haven't fixed the roads properly—when you have potholes everywhere.

That's what it's there for, yet they didn't. For 69 per cent of claims VicRoads said it was not liable to pay out a compensation claim at all. When the ABC put to the Victorian state government, 'What is your response to this?' they didn't have one.

All they talked about was a $976 million road maintenance budget for 2025-26. Let's hope they actually put that money into fixing roads, they do it quickly, and they do it in such a way that, after the next shower of rain, we're not dealing with faulty pavements again so people aren't putting in any more claims. In that report they say they're going to look at the Princes Highway West and they're going to look at the Western Highway as part of this road maintenance blitz.

I say to the Victorian state government, 'Get on with it,' and I also say to them, 'If you're going to have a claims system, it needs to be serious, you need to be upfront with people and, if they're going to go to the time and effort to put that claim in, you've got to do better than dismissing the majority of claims with nefarious excuses and only delivering on 1.3 per cent of them.' It's a disgrace, and it's why you deserve to be voted out.