Editorial: The poor state of Border and North East roads is beyond a joke

Pictures of potplants in the middle of a road, the tyre dealer that's "busier than a blue-arsed fly on a pile of roadkill", the man chastised by police for erratic driving while he was swerving to avoid the hazards and the pensioner who reckons if his worsening heart condition doesn't kill him, the abysmal state of our highways will.

Sadly, these aren't skits from a new Aussie comedy, they're real-life stories that have appeared in The Border Mail over the past week, and they're no laughing matter.

In the same week that Wodonga hosted a hearing of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport to investigate ways to improve regional road networks, The Border Mail has been inundated with horror stories from our readers.

Benambra MP Bill Tilley, Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy, and federal member for Indi Helen Haines have all expressed their disgust at the state of the roads in the region despite the a Victorian government spokesman saying there was a "strong commitment to maintaining regional roads" with $2.8 billion earmarked for maintenance and renewal works over 10 years.

Put simply, many people don't have 10 years.

Wodonga mayor Ron Mildren's idea to redirect funds from the scrapped Commonwealth Games is a good one, and one that would have a meaningful impact on the lives of everyday motorists.

That's not to demean Daniel Andrews' commitment to funnel $1 billion into more than 1300 new social and affordable housing homes across the state and $150 million on tourism and events.

Affordable housing is one of the biggest issues facing the country as cost of living bites hard and, of course, that impacts motorists' ability to pay the inevitable bills that come with shonky roads smashing their cars to bits.

As Cr Mildren said, "there's a lot of other things that the government could do to open up housing much more quickly and take some of the state-imposed costs of construction".

But one thing's for certain, the roads won't fix themselves.

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