CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Mr CHESTER (Gippsland—Deputy Leader of the National Party) (10:10): 'Just fix the bloody roads!' That is a constant refrain I have from people in my electorate who are concerned about the lack of maintenance, the potholes and the damage being caused to their vehicles by roads which have not been maintained by the Victorian state government. If you want to find out what is wrong with the Victorian government, I want you just to have a quick look at one issue, and that issue is the monumental incompetence when it comes to the $10 million provided by the former coalition government for the Mallacoota-Genoa Road upgrade.
In May 2021, the former coalition government committed $10 million to the Mallacoota-Genoa Road to improve safety on this critical link to one of the most important tourist towns in my electorate. After the Black Summer bushfires, that road was closed, due to the impact of fallen trees and debris, and the resilience of the access road was the No. 1 issue raised by the community in the aftermath of the bushfires when we talked about recovery.
The Victorian government refused to provide a cent for that project, and we were able to secure $10 million from the former coalition government to get the work started. The Victorian government owns the road; it is 100 per cent responsible for the upgrade of the road. And, five years later, not a single cent has actually been spent on the road.
It's extraordinary to think that a government could be so incompetent. Even when the money was free, from the Commonwealth government, these incompetent fools in Victoria have not spent a cent on the actual road which was the No. 1 priority for the people in the Mallacoota-Genoa district after the Black Summer bushfires. Now, if you need to understand why, it's on this letter from the former premier Jacinta Allan, who said to me, in February 2022: 'As you know, this funding was committed through the federal budget without consultation with the Victorian government, and was not tied to a specific scope of works.' These idiots in Victoria have spent five years working on the scope of works!
World War II was fought and won in less time. If this Labor government in Victoria had been responsible, they'd still be working out the rules of engagement for World War II! These bumbling fools could not spend $10 million of free money on a road that was the No. 1 priority for the people in the Mallacoota-Genoa district.
This incompetence all stems from one critical fact: the Victorian Labor government has been so involved in the rorts and corruption around the $15 billion Big Build project in Melbourne, they've forgotten about the rest of the state. If they hadn't been wasting so much time and so much taxpayers' money on rorts and corruption in Melbourne, maybe they would have turned their attention to the Mallacoota-Genoa Road.
The No. 1 priority project for that community after the Black Summer bushfires was to fix that road, and the former coalition government had $10 million on the table and it still hasn't been spent. Complete incompetence!