VICTORIA'S opposition party has launched a new campaign asking voters to identify "Victoria's worst road" through an online survey designed as a critique of the state government.
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The three-month Victoria's Worst Road campaign provides the opportunity for people to submit "safety reports" on their local roads, after which the opposition will present the findings to the Victorian minister for roads, Ben Carroll.
Lowan member Emma Kealy endorsed the project and said the state government had neglected country roads, pointing to the end of the Country Roads and Bridges Program in 2014.
"Decades of neglect has left Victoria's road rough and potholed, risking the lives of motorcyclists, car drivers and truckies every single day," she said.
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"There have been 76 lives lost on Victoria roads this year, but Labor is spending less on maintaining and repairing the state's road network, instead pouring more than $24 billion into plugging costs over-runs on poorly managed major projects.
"The waste and mismanagement has to stop, and this will only happen with a change of government in November."
Upon its launch, the survey was met with criticism after it was revealed the website's main image was actually of a damaged road in Ukraine, and not Australia.
The image has since been changed.
A Victorian government spokesperson defended the government's road maintenance history in the Wimmera, pointing to its $40.7 million 'regional road blitz' program.
More than 200 individual road projects have been earmarked for the region under the program, which the spokesperson said equates to more than 350 kilometres of roads repaired.
"No one seriously believes the Victorian Liberals will ever build, upgrade or maintain any road across the Wimmera, despite what they may claim," the spokesperson said.
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"Their legacy when it comes to roads, both across the Wimmera region and all of Victoria, is very clear - it's just cuts to road maintenance and underfunding of projects.
"While the Liberals come up with an explanation as to why they deceptively used vision of roads in the Ukraine and USA on their new website, we're getting on with maintaining more roads than ever before and upgrading some of our biggest regional roads - slashing travel times and supporting thousands of jobs.
"As part of our most recent regional road maintenance blitz, we are completing more than 200 individual projects across the Wimmera."
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