More funding needed
REGIONAL Victorians have been forgotten in the push towards zero road fatalities.
One fatality is one too many, whether on country roads or roads in Melbourne.
But new data shows country Victorians are being left behind in the push towards zero, with the regional road toll only falling about 20 per cent since 2000, while metro fatalities have dropped 47 per cent.
It’s not enough for the government to talk up spending millions on road safety and improvements if it’s not making a genuine difference in the lives of all Victorians.
Labor’s plan to simply lower speed limits, while leaving country roads in a dangerous patchwork of potholes and crumbling roadsides, doesn’t address the worsening condition of too many kilometres of our regional road network.
One of the first things Daniel Andrews did when he was elected was to axe the Country Roads and Bridges Program, despite the real difference it was making in helping local councils upgrade our state’s most deadly roads.
Each life lost is another family torn apart and changed forever.
This year’s state budget must include significant investment in improving the condition of the regional road network.
Country lives depend on it.
Peter Walsh, Leader of The Nationals
Remembering the Rats
ON April 11, Australia will mark 80 years since the start of the Siege of Tobruk, which saw Australian soldiers, along with four regiments of British artillery and some Indian troops, besieged in Tobruk, Libya, by a German-Italian army during the Second World War.
Around 14,000 Australians and other Allied troops tenaciously defended the town and harbour in Libya until December 1941.
They were dubbed as the Rats of Tobruk by the enemy, a term that was embraced as an ironic compliment.
For the Allies, halting the enemy advance into Egypt was vital, and Australian soldiers “dug in”, despite being subjected to repeated ground assaults and constant shelling and bombing.
With the support of the Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy, the “Rats” endured about eight long months of attacks from the German-Italian army before the siege ended.
Australia suffered a large number of casualties over the course of the siege, with more than 830 killed, more than 2170 injured and around 940 prisoners taken.
A Rats of Tobruk Memorial stands on Anzac Parade in Canberra in honour of all those who served during this important period in the Second World War.
As a nation, we remember and thank the Rats of Tobruk for their service and sacrifice.
Lest we forget.
Darren Chester, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Minister for Defence Personnel
