Council
26 November, 2025
Tehan advocates for road repairs
THE Albanese Labor Government has turned back on its plan to slash speed limits on regional roads to 70 kilometres per hour.
Wannon MP Dan Tehan said the proposal “never should have seen the light of day” and the decision to quietly drop the policy is an admission Labor has failed to address the real issue – fixing dangerous, crumbling regional roads.
“Regional communities, local councils, and Liberal and National MPs mounted a powerful grassroots campaign against Labor’s reckless plan and common sense has finally prevailed,” he said.
“It should never have taken this long. The government wasted months pushing a policy that punished regional motorists instead of repairing the roads that endanger them.”
Mr Tehan said the government’s backdown follows overwhelming public opposition, including more than 11,000 submissions rejecting Labor’s proposal.
“Labor ignored the calls from communities in Wannon to not lower speed limits,” he said.
“Cutting speed limits was to be a lazy substitute for real road investment.”
The backdown comes as Australia faces a worsening road-safety crisis, with 1361 Australians losing their lives on the road in the past year – a 6.9 per cent increase on the previous 12 months to October.
Two-thirds of those fatalities occurred in regional Australia.
October recorded the worst monthly toll in five years, with fatalities 14.9 per cent above average.
“Axing the speed-limit plan is a victory for regional Australia, but road safety won’t improve until the Albanese Government invests in the roads themselves,” Mr Tehan said.
“It’s time they got on with the task of making roads safer by fixing them and filling the potholes.”
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