Burnt Infrastructure Still Unrepaired Post-2019 Bushfires: Opposition

National and Liberal ministers ask where is the funding for infrastructure damaged by weather event, why roads are being neglected.

Smoke billows during bushfires in Bairnsdale, a city in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, Dec. 30, 2019. Glen Morey/Social Media/via Reuters

Victoria’s National member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, has put the spotlight on the state government’s recovery efforts after the 2019 bushfires.

The 2019–20 bushfires saw five lives lost, more than 1.5 million hectares of land burned, 2,092 people evacuated, 405 homes and 653 non-residential buildings destroyed, and 5,827 livestock deaths.

Most of the significant fire activity occurred in the Gippsland and Hume regions, particularly on the border of New South Wales where fires were burning close by.

Bull said residents of his region were still waiting on public infrastructure to be rebuilt.

“We’ve still got a lot of infrastructure not rebuilt. And not only is some of it not rebuilt, but some of it hasn’t even been started,” he told The Epoch Times.

“And the Cape Conran cabins are an example of that.

Bull recalled standing with then-Premier Dan Andrews in Bairnsdale after the fires, where he told the community he would walk together with them during the recovery journey.

“Five years on and we’ve still got jetties burnt around Mallacoota Lake not fixed, walking tracks closed, Cape Conran cabins not rebuilt,” he said.

“And to me that’s been the most frustrating element locally.”

Ongoing Repairs

The bushfires damaged 463,000 hectares of Parks Victoria land, destroying more than $50 million (US$32 million) of built assets across the east of the state.

Parks Victoria said as part of the Cape Conran Roofed Accommodation Project recommencement, a Cultural Heritage Management Plan (CHMP) was submitted to First Peoples—State Relations (FP-SR) in August.

The project aims to deliver 10 cabins for visitor accommodation for Cape Conran Coastal Park, a scenic area for beachcombing and whale watching.

Parks Victoria added it has carried out works on the Yeerung Bridge, which sustained significant damage during the April 2022 flood event, and it is back open to pedestrians and vehicles.

The state government body has also completed works on the East Cape Boardwalk replacement, and it is back open for visitors to enjoy.

It said designs were complete and procurement for the construction of the Cope Conran Activity Centre were in progress, and all walking tracks at Cape Conran Coastal Park were open, including a section of the Nature Trail between Cowrie Bay and Joiners Channel.

Roads ‘Look Like the Somme Battlefield’

Bull said he was concerned about the state of roads throughout Victoria.

He said the Allan government needed to urgently revise its spending because the safety of motorists depended on it.

“We’ve got roads like the Monaro Highway that look like the Somme Battlefield, and it’s a major highway,” he said.

“The Genoa-Mallacoota Rd is another one. The Princes Highway East, the Bonang Highway—all of these areas in the far east, and this is duplicated right across country Victoria—are in a complete mess.

“And when you cut maintenance funding and the resurfacing budget to the levels they’ve been cut, there’s no other real outcome.

“It can only go one way.”

Victoria’s Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Melissa Horne, said the Allan government had delivered major repairs and safety upgrades to a busy Gippsland freight and tourism route after it was damaged by extreme weather.

The Labor government has began a self-described “blitz,” involving $964 million spent on road repairs, as part of the largest single-year investment towards road maintenance in Victoria’s history.

Crews have been out across the state working on many projects to rebuild, repair and resurface roads, including major works to the South Gippsland Highway, Rosedale-Longford Road, Koo-Wee-Rup-Longwarry Road, and Korumburra-Warragul Road.

“Both lanes of the Hyland Highway are now open and the 100 km/h speed limit reinstated—keeping this crucial freight and tourist route moving,” Horne said.

“It’s been a mammoth job from our crews to reopen both lanes after heavy rainfall and extreme weather caused two landslips—with crews stabilising and repairing the road to make it safe again for the community.”

However, Liberal Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, backed up Bull’s summation, saying there was instances where potholes had become “craters.”

“Roads are timeless. We’ve got potholes that are now craters, and the government has no real plan to do anything about it,” she told The Epoch Times.

“The real problem is whatever money being spent is being spent badly.

“We don’t actually build roads that last, and neither do we repair them properly.

“So they fail within months of a repair. So money is being wasted, which is the worst part about it.

“Nearly every road that I could name in the western Victoria region is in a bad state, and what they do—instead of fixing the roads—is put up a slow-down sign.”

Victoria’s Debt Continues to Rise

Bull also singled out the increasing state debt, which is expected to reach $188 billion by 2027-28.

“When you have a debt of that level, you would like to think you’ve got something to show for it,” he said.

“You would like to think you’ve got a Rolls Royce roads system, or a Rolls Royce health system. But everywhere you look, nothing is great to show for the debt that we have.

“So that’s a huge concern. And when your debt is higher than Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania combined—and there’s still so much to do—it’s a huge concern.”

Premier Jacinta Allan last month went on the record defending the state’s debt, saying the COVID pandemic was a key factor in the amount of money being spent in recent years, with $21 billion committed to business and economic support.

Premier Allan’s office was contacted for further comment.