Prime Minister, Premier urged to see Victoria's roads at first hand

Mr Tehan issued the challenge to Mr Albanese after it was revealed $40 million was cut from Roads of Strategic Importance (ROSI) funding budgeted by the previous Liberal federal government.

"My new year's resolution - the thing that I want to achieve more than anything this year - is to get that funding restored," Mr Tehan said.

"That is my number one priority for the year."

Mr Tehan said he was shocked the funding, which he had lobbied for, had been cut.

"I'm offering a challenge to Anthony Albanese to come down and spend four hours driving on our roads and then tell the people of south-west Victoria that taking that $40 million wasn't an outright crime," he said.

"He needs to get out of his comfort zone in inner-Sydney and come down and see the conditions that we are forced to drive in, especially after the torrential rain which further damaged the already poorly maintained roads over the past 12 months."

Mr Tehan said the federal government was forgetting rural and regional residents.

"Where are their priorities? Obviously not in south-west Victoria," he said.

The Standard contacted Mr Albanese's office but a response was not received.

Mr Tehan first blasted the federal government on the decision in November last year. He revealed to The Standard the federal government had cut funding previously allocated to upgrade south-west roads, including the Princes Highway between Warrnambool and Port Fairy.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack visited Warrnambool in March 2019 to announce the funding.

In total, there was $80 million committed to the roads, with the state government asked to chip in 20 per cent of the funds.

"I'm staggered that more than half of the funding has been cut," Mr Tehan said.

"My greatest fear - now that we have (Premier) Daniel Andrews back in Victoria and Anthony Albanese in Canberra - is that they will turn their back on rural Victoria and punish us.

"I know how much our communities need this funding. Every day they drive on roads worrying about damage to their cars and their safety.

"It beggars belief."

A federal government spokeswoman told The Warrnambool Standard no funding had been removed from active Roads of Strategic Importance projects.

"Through the October federal budget, $189 million of unallocated funding was returned to budget from Victorian ROSI corridors, including $41.3 million for the ROSI Green Triangle corridor," the spokeswoman said. "There were no decisions of the previous government taken that would mean projects were committed to under that unallocated funding.

"If Coalition MPs are now saying those specific projects (under 'future priorities') had been funded, they should provide evidence to back their claims."

The Standard asked the federal government how much of the $80 million committed had already been spent on south-west roads.

However, no response to this question was provided.

Mr Andrews, who has not visited the south-west for close to 1500 days, has also been issued a similar challenge.

The last time the Premier was in the region was when he visited Cobden in March 2018 and Warrnambool the year before.

Liberal South West Coast MP Roma Britnell said she had lost count of the amount of times she had asked Mr Andrews to visit the region and drive on the roads.

"I have asked the Premier, the Roads Minister and the backbenchers, who claim our roads are fine, countless times," Mr Britnell said.

She said lobbying for roads funding would be her top priority when parliament resumed in early February.

Ms Britnell said the silence had been deafening.

"The Premier is the Premier for Melbourne - he's not the Premier for Victoria," she said.

Tom Noonan, who lives in Hawkesdale and travels on the Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road each day, said he feared he or other motorists would have a serious accident.

The Hawkesdale CFA member described the road as a "goat track".

"The condition is unacceptable for a major artillery road, especially in between Willatook to the western end near Heywood," Mr Noonan said.

"It's an accident waiting to happen. How long is it going to take to fix the road way before someone gets seriously hurt or killed?

"There's already been countless accidents on the road."

Mr Noonan said the 60km/h restrictions signs on a crumbling section near Broadwater were a joke.

"The signs do nothing at all to fix the condition of the road," he said.

"Being a member of the Hawkesdale CFA, it's a concern that there's going to be a major motor vehicle accident to attend to due to the conditions of the road.

"Even driving along the road in a truck is scary."

In October last year, Broadwater's Adam Fry told The Standard he feared it would take the loss of someone's life on the crumbling Woolsthorpe-Heywood Road before any action was taken to upgrade it.

He said when he lost control of his vehicle on "a bit of bad road" and hit a tree, no action was taken to fix the roads.