Victorian Labor government pledges $2.7 billion for road upgrades

Labor is hoping to woo outer-suburban voters with a multibillion-dollar road blitz, opening a new battlefront against the Coalition as Premier Ben Carroll seeks to shore up support in at-risk seats.

With the condition of the state’s roads in the spotlight, following the death of a motorcyclist who struck a pothole and a report by the auditor-general revealing half of Victoria’s government-managed roads are in poor or very poor condition, the main parties have begun promising major upgrades ahead of November’s election.

Since the start of the month, Premier Ben Carroll has announced that if re-elected, his government would spend a combined $2.74 billion on 11 road projects, largely in heartland Labor seats that loom as battlegrounds amid the rise of One Nation.

The Coalition has pledged to spend $1.38 billion on road upgrades if it claims power, and more announcements are expected in coming weeks.

Local councils have welcomed Labor’s commitments – including for projects more than a decade in the making – and want the Coalition to match them to give residents certainty that traffic-busting upgrades will be delivered.

Labor’s pledges include $550 million to add new lanes to the Western Freeway between Melton and Caroline Springs; $494 million to duplicate Somerton Road between Roxburgh Park Drive and Fleetwood Drive in Greenvale; and $350 million to upgrade Hallam Road in Melbourne’s south-east.

All are in Labor held-electorates, excluding South Barwon, which is held by former Labor MP Darren Cheeseman, who was dumped from the party in 2024 over allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Many are in seats considered at-risk.

These include an $83 million pledge to upgrade the Ballan Road and Bolton Road intersection in the electorate of Werribee, which Labor retained by just 693 votes in a byelection last year, and $170 million to widen Taylors Road in Sydenham.

The Coalition’s commitments include $524 million to duplicate Donnybrook Road in Melbourne’s outer north, and $607 million to duplicate and extend Thompsons Road in Officer South, near Pakenham. The opposition matched Labor’s promise to build the Bellarine Link, but has costed it at $247 million, $10 million more expensive.

Pollster and Resolve founder Jim Reed said parties generally spent big in electorates they wanted to win and retain. He said Labor’s roads blitz might be an attempt to “sandbag” outer-metropolitan seats.

“Our polling suggests Labor are right to worry about them, with large 10-point-plus [two-party preferred] swings to the Liberals at this stage,” Reed said. “That’s partly a result of preference flows from One Nation, and they may win some seats in their own right too.”

Some $1.09 billion of Labor’s road pledges are for electorates in Melbourne’s west. This includes seats still considered safe – Tarneit and Point Cook – but also the heartland Labor electorates of Sydenham, Melton and Werribee, which are under threat from conservative parties.

Monash University political scientist Zareh Ghazarian said the 10 per cent swing from Labor to the Liberals at the Werribee byelection was indicative of how strongly sentiment had turned in the outer west.

Although Melbourne’s west is the fastest-growing region in Australia, it has suffered from underinvestment, and traffic is a major issue for some communities.

Carroll has been highly active in the western suburbs during his premiership. Since Sunday, he has held press conferences in Werribee, Cobblebank and Maribyrnong to make law and order announcements.

But Ghazarian said Labor’s road blitz might be considered too little, too late by some voters in the west, where infrastructure has trailed massive population growth.

“You can’t fatten the pig on market day,” he said, quoting a proverb favoured by former prime minister John Howard.

A government spokesperson said it was wrong to say its $2.7 billion road-spending plan was to shore up support in vulnerable seats.

“Better local roads are our priority, which is why we’ll upgrade key roads across Victoria – cutting congestion and slashing travel times to keep working people moving,” the spokesperson said.

They said the upgrades, if delivered, would provide much needed relief to communities stuck in peak-hour traffic.

The Liberal Party was unable to crack Labor’s hold on the west in 2022, but opposition transport infrastructure spokesman Evan Mulholland said residents in the area had been long neglected.

“The people of the west won’t easily forget that this same Labor government Ben Carroll has been a part of promised Melton and Wyndham Vale electrification at two elections and delayed Airport Rail, while ploughing on with a white elephant train line from Cheltenham to Box Hill,” Mulholland said.

“Labor has already decided who they support with infrastructure dollars, and it’s not the growth areas in Melbourne. Hollow promises months out from an election after 12 years of bloody-minded neglect aren’t going to cut it.”

The City of Casey, in Melbourne’s outer south-east, said Labor’s commitment to upgrade Hallam Road and Evans Road would cut congestion and increase safety for motorists.

Hume City Council, in Melbourne’s north, welcomed Labor’s pledge to duplicate Somerton Road after 15 years of advocacy.

“We now call upon the ... Coalition to match this funding commitment so that our local communities can have confidence that this long-awaited project will be delivered,” Mayor Carly Moore said.

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