Focus on potholes, not speed

A plan to slash speed limits on regional roads to 70 km/h was a proposal that never should have seen the light of day, according to Member for Monash Mary Aldred.
Welcoming the federal Labor Government's decision to abandon the reduced speed limit plan, Ms Aldred said it was no time to focus on improving road infrastructure.
Ms Aldred said the decision to quietly drop the policy was an admission that Labor failed to address the real issue: fixing dangerous, crumbling regional roads.
"Regional communities, local councils, and Liberal and National MPs mounted a powerful grassroots campaign against Labor's reckless plan and common sense has finally prevailed," Aldred said.
"It should never have taken this long. The government wasted months pushing a policy that punished regional motorists instead of repairing the roads that endanger them."
Aldred said the government's backdown followed overwhelming public opposition, including more than 11,000 submissions rejecting Labor's proposal.
"Labor ignored the calls from communities in Monash to not slower speed limits. Cutting speed limits was to be a lazy substitute for real road investment," Aldred said.
"Axing the speed-limit plan is a victory for regional Australia, but road safety won't improve until the Albanese Government invests in the roads themselves. It's time they got on with the task of making roads safer by fixing them and filling the potholes," Aldred said.