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September 16, 2026 \u2014 7:30pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n With the condition of the state\u2019s roads in the spotlight, following the death of a motorcyclist who struck a pothole<\/a> and a report by the auditor-general revealing half of Victoria\u2019s government-managed roads are in poor or very poor condition<\/a>, the main parties have begun promising major upgrades ahead of November\u2019s election.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The Coalition has pledged to spend $1.38 billion on road upgrades if it claims power, and more announcements are expected in coming weeks.<\/p>\n Local councils have welcomed Labor\u2019s commitments \u2013 including for projects more than a decade in the making \u2013 and want the Coalition to match them to give residents certainty that traffic-busting upgrades will be delivered.<\/p>\n Labor\u2019s pledges include $550 million to add new lanes to the Western Freeway<\/a> 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\u2019s south-east.<\/p>\n All are in Labor held-electorates, excluding South Barwon, which is held by former Labor MP Darren Cheeseman, who was dumped from the party<\/a> in 2024 over allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Many are in seats considered at-risk.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The Coalition\u2019s commitments include $524 million to duplicate Donnybrook Road in Melbourne\u2019s outer north, and $607 million to duplicate and extend Thompsons Road in Officer South, near Pakenham. The opposition matched Labor\u2019s promise to build the Bellarine Link<\/a>, but has costed it at $247 million, $10 million more expensive.<\/p>\n Pollster and Resolve founder Jim Reed said parties generally spent big in electorates they wanted to win and retain. He said Labor\u2019s roads blitz might be an attempt to \u201csandbag\u201d outer-metropolitan seats.<\/p>\n \u201cOur polling suggests Labor are right to worry about them, with large 10-point-plus [two-party preferred] swings to the Liberals at this stage,\u201d Reed said. \u201cThat\u2019s partly a result of preference flows from One Nation, and they may win some seats in their own right too.\u201d<\/p>\n Some $1.09 billion of Labor\u2019s road pledges are for electorates in Melbourne\u2019s west. This includes seats still considered safe \u2013 Tarneit and Point Cook \u2013 but also the heartland Labor electorates of Sydenham, Melton and Werribee, which are under threat from conservative parties.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Although Melbourne\u2019s west is the fastest-growing region in Australia, it has suffered from underinvestment, and traffic is a major issue for some communities.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But Ghazarian said Labor\u2019s road blitz might be considered too little, too late by some voters in the west, where infrastructure has trailed massive population growth.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t fatten the pig on market day,\u201d he said, quoting a proverb favoured by former prime minister John Howard.<\/p>\n A government spokesperson said it was wrong to say its $2.7 billion road-spending plan was to shore up support in vulnerable seats.<\/p>\n \u201cBetter local roads are our priority, which is why we\u2019ll upgrade key roads across Victoria \u2013 cutting congestion and slashing travel times to keep working people moving,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n They said the upgrades, if delivered, would provide much needed relief to communities stuck in peak-hour traffic.<\/p>\n The Liberal Party was unable to crack Labor\u2019s hold on the west in 2022, but opposition transport infrastructure spokesman Evan Mulholland said residents in the area had been long neglected.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people of the west won\u2019t 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,\u201d Mulholland said.<\/p>\n \u201cLabor has already decided who they support with infrastructure dollars, and it\u2019s not the growth areas in Melbourne. Hollow promises months out from an election after 12 years of bloody-minded neglect aren\u2019t going to cut it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The City of Casey, in Melbourne\u2019s outer south-east, said Labor\u2019s commitment to upgrade Hallam Road and Evans Road would cut congestion and increase safety for motorists.<\/p>\n Hume City Council, in Melbourne\u2019s north, welcomed Labor\u2019s pledge to duplicate Somerton Road after 15 years of advocacy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d Mayor Carly Moore said.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Premier](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/582617064a130b5362e2e3cdaec1bbb117beed3d.jpeg\")
Premier Ben Carroll announcing funding for roads at a Werribee press conference this month. Ruby Alexander<\/p>\n![\"Angus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789574776_566_57227a6cbb3a13402d462404e48f5f8b224ea4d96ff86e0915db5ab07999c1cb.png\")
Angus Delaney<\/a> is a state political reporter at The Age. Email him at angus.delaney@theage.com.au or contact him securely on Signal at angusdelaney.31Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 16, 2026 \u2014 7:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-894252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}