Council & Politics
17 July, 2026
$5 billion pledge to fix roads
NATIONALS candidate for Ripon Jo Armstrong said a $5 billion road maintenance fund announced this week by the Coalition will improve road construction standards and deliver real relief for local drivers sick of dodging potholes on roads like Western, Sunraysia and Pyrenees Highways.
The plan will invest $5 billion over four years to build better, safer roads and lift Victoria's road maintenance standards back to where they should be.
Mr Armstrong said regional Victoria is riddled with patched up roads and poor construction.
“We need safer roads in Ripon and the funding has been slowly siphoned away into city builds,” she said.
"For over ten years the Burrumbeet to Beaufort section of the Western Highway has been proof of a job only half-done under Labor, patched up after every bit of rain, only to crumble again within weeks.
“It's the same story on the Sunraysia Highway near St Arnaud and the Pyrenees Highway into Maryborough. These aren't new problems; they're years of band-aid fixes catching up with us,” Ms Armstrong said.
"The Western Highway is Australia’s second-busiest road and the sub-standard build and maintenance of this crucial highway impacts the movement of freight and tourism as well as the safety of people travelling for work, healthcare, school, and connecting with family and friends.”
“Ripon’s roads have crumbled to goat tracks while Labor pours billions into underused, corruption-plagued Big Build projects,” Ms Armstrong said.
“If elected in November, The Nationals will stop the waste and end the corruption so we can build better and safer regional roads."
The Coalition’s plan will see the re-establishment of Better Roads Victoria as a standalone agency, rebuilding the engineering and technical expertise stripped out when Labor axed Regional
Roads Victoria.