Victorian Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said he was confident the Federal government would continue to support the state government, in funding for upgrading freight routes.
Mr Donnellan was talking to Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) conference delegates, who were on a boat tour of the Port of Melbourne.
He said the government had a good relationship with Federal Transport Minister, Darren Chester.
“The one thing we all do agree on is that we need to improve freight efficiency. To be honest, the first thing that was agreed on, was spending money on upgrading bridges,” Mr Donellan said.
“Darren Chester was genuine, you could talk to him about that - while we might argue about East-West, we might argue over Western Distributor, but when it comes to upgrading bridges, and updating bridges, I think we are in the same space.”
Mr Donnellan said money from the $200 million Agriculture Infrastructure and Jobs Fund – from the sale of the lease of the Port of Melbourne – would be set aside for road and bridge upgrades.
“I can’t necessarily fund roads which are council and private, but lot of work we are doing with VicRoads is to identify bridges, to allow greater numbers of High Productivity Freight Vehicles to get supplies to market,” he said.
“We also have VicRoads identifying other impediments to getting supplies to market, so we have a network of both B-Doubles and above, right up to 85 tonnes and beyond, to get goods into the market.”
Mr Donnellan said the Western Distributor would also provide a more efficient route, in, and out of the port.
