Road quality unacceptable

Thursday September 21, 2023

Outsourcing drives pothole pain he prevalence of potholes on such roads as the Princes Highway between Mount Gambier and Millicent has been blamed by Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis on the decision of the previous Liberal Government to outsource road maintenance.

Mr Koutsantonis provided this explanation in the House of Assembly last week in response to a question from Independent Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell.

He had asked Minister Koutsantonis to explain what response times were built into the contract of a private road maintenance contractor and the State Government for repairs on State Government regional roads.

Mr Bell said he had heard media reports a Mount Gambier man had his tyre and wheel destroyed by a large pothole on his way from the Blue Lake city to Millicent.

"Others had hit potholes around our region and they say that response times are very poor," Mr Bell said.

In reply, the Labor MP and Transport Minister said the SE road maintenance program had formerly been a State Government responsibility, but had been outsourced by the previous Liberal Government in office from 2018-2022.

"They took the cheapest possible price they could and roads have deteriorated. The private contractor is constantly asking for changes to the contract. The Member for Mount Gambier is absolutely right. The people of the South East know the road maintenance outsourcing has been a failure," Minister Koutsantonis said.

"They see it every day when they are driving on their roads. We are working through this problem. I agree the time taken to fix these potholes is too long. There are budget implications here, of course, because of the way the tender process was conducted by the Liberal State Government. I say to the Member for Mount Gambier that it is a priority of mine."

Minister Koutsantonis said he and Regional Roads Minister Geoff Brock were working on how best to tackle the issue, describing it as a "very, very large problem".

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