Victorians are being encouraged to highlight the worst potholes in the state through a new competition to apply more pressure on the state government to fix the region’s roads.
The Victorian Nationals and Liberals are running a statewide photo competition, with the best (or worst) potholes to feature in a 2025 ‘Potholes for All Seasons’ Calendar that will be presented to Premier Jacinta Allan and Roads and Road Safety Minister Melissa Horne.
You can send in a photo of the pothole or road damage you think is in most urgent need of attention to potholepics.com
State Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland said Victoria’s roads had been going backwards for years after successive road maintenance budget cuts under Labor.
“Victorians know our roads are in a deplorable state, and they are angry about it,” Ms Cleeland said.
“This calendar will be one way for motorists to vent while at the same time putting pressure on the government to act on maintaining our roads.
“This year’s road maintenance budget is 16 per cent less than it was four years ago, and this government’s own survey last year found 91 per cent of roads reviewed were in a poor or very poor state.”
Ms Cleeland said the lack of preventative maintenance was only going to make the roads worse in the future.
Recent data from the Department of Transport and Planning showed the area of road ‘rehabilitated or resurfaced’ in regional Victoria fell to just 422,000 square metres in 2023/24, down from nine million the year before and 11.5 million in the prior year.
“This is a disastrous state of affairs because the lack of maintenance will just mean more potholes and damaged roads will appear in future,” Ms Cleeland said.
“There has been a steady erosion of road funding by the Allan Labor Government that has crippled our capacity to carry out full-depth repairs, or even basic waterproofing, and it has left our roads in an unacceptable state of disrepair.
“We need to highlight the problem to get Labor to act.”
Ms Cleeland encouraged motorists to only take photos of roads where they could do so safely and without putting other road users at risk.
A Victorian Government spokesperson said when in power the Nationals and Liberals cut road funding.
“We’re investing nearly a billion dollars – the biggest single year investment ever - to rebuild and repair the roads that Victorians depend on every single day,” the spokesperson said.
“Crews are now out on the ground right now delivering works as part of our record investment which is nearly double the average spend of $493 million of the previous Liberal National Government."