Potholes and pitfalls: How to fix local roads

These are the sealed and unsealed roads that link homes and The problem of poorly maintained roads is largely a problem of businesses to the arterials, corridors, and freeways of the road network. [...] Taxpayers would also get better This report maps the way to a better road network across Australia: an value if the federal government stopped favouring the densely annual funding increase of $1 billion for local roads, better targeting to populated states of NSW and Victoria, to the detriment of Tasmania make sure the money goes to where it is needed most, and reforms to and the NT, and cut back. [...] ∙ establish a small list of essential data items attached to the road hierarchy, to enable the measurement of council’s performance, in consultation with states and Local Government Associations; and Ensure untied funding goes where it is needed most ∙ provide funding and support to councils to acquire the necessary The federal government should fix the distribution of the Financial technology, so. [...] ∙ reducing the minimum grant to 10 per cent of an equal-per-capita share of the Financial Assistance Grants pool; ∙ combining the local roads component of the Financial Assistance Grants with the general component; and ∙ allocating funds for Roads to Recovery and similar programs according to the same distribution used for the Financial Assistance Grants. [...] The following sections lay out $5b the arguments for and against different means of funding the gap, and concludes that the federal government is the level of government that should make up the $1 billion annual shortfall in funding for the maintenance of local roads.