Transport and Infrastructure

Labor has treated regional Victoria as an afterthought for years. While billions were wasted on Melbourne projects that run over time and over budget, regional roads have been left dangerous, rail has been left unreliable, water has been tied up in bureaucracy, farmland has been opened to foreign buyers and industrial projects, and frontline fisheries and fire management have been cut back. The neglect is not accidental. It is a choice.

Lower taxes, cheaper energy and affordable housing will not hold if the regions that grow the food, cut the timber and carry the freight are left behind. This is the productive base of the state.

Our Policies

Rail

Roads

Rail

Labor has poured billions into the Suburban Rail Loop, a project that returns only 60 to 70 cents for every dollar spent and will not open until 2035, while regional rail remains unreliable and the Inland Rail project has been delayed and scaled back. Victorians were promised better freight and passenger connections. What they got was waste in Melbourne and neglect everywhere else.

What we will do:

Cancel the Suburban Rail Loop and redirect funding to infrastructure that actually delivers.
Finish the freight and commuter track duplication across regional Victoria so trains can run reliably and efficiently.
Support the full completion of the Melbourne-to-Brisbane Inland Rail project after Labor’s delays and cutbacks.
Electrify the Melton line.
Complete the Airport Rail Link so all Victorians finally have easy and reliable access to Melbourne Airport.

Finish the projects that matter. Stop the ones that do not.

Roads

Labor has left regional roads to fall apart while pouring billions into over-budget Melbourne projects. The maintenance backlog on regional highways kills people. Dangerous roads cost lives, smash up vehicles, and hold back every community and business that depends on them.

What we will do:

Fund regional roads to a proper standard: fix the maintenance backlog, prioritise high-risk and high-traffic regional highways, and lock in ongoing funding rather than leave it to annual political bargaining. Regional roads will be treated as essential infrastructure, not optional extras.
Publish the condition and funding of every major regional road, road by road, so Victorians can see exactly what is being spent and where the backlog remains.
Create a public Pothole Portal. Anyone will be able to report a pothole, see it appear on a live map, and track how long the government takes to fix it. Delays will be visible to everyone.

A road you cannot trust is not a road. It is a liability.