Victoria plans prison crews for roadside maintenance in bid to tackle crumbling roads
?s Labor government has unveiled a plan to put supervised, minimum-security prisoners to work on roadside maintenance if it wins the November electio...
Victoria’s Labor government has unveiled a plan to put supervised, minimum-security prisoners to work on roadside maintenance if it wins the November election. The move comes a day after the government lifted its road maintenance budget by A$352 million and set a target of fixing 500,000 potholes by the end of January.
The proposal is aimed at easing pressure on the state’s battered highways and local roads. Under the pilot program, inmates in Victorian jails would take on basic jobs such as mowing lawns, removing graffiti, controlling weeds and picking up rubbish.
Crews freed up for potholes
Premier Ben Carroll said the plan would be developed with Corrections Victoria and would rely on supervised prisoners in low-security settings. He said the idea was to free up skilled roadside maintenance crews so they could focus on the tougher task: repairing potholes.
Carroll, who served as roads minister from 2020 to 2022, tied the proposal directly to the state’s road crisis. The government has been under pressure to show it can get ahead of worsening road conditions, with the latest funding boost presented as part of that effort.
The announcement adds a new element to Labor’s maintenance push, folding prison labour into routine upkeep work that often falls behind more urgent repairs. For the government, the bet is straightforward. Less time spent on mowing and rubbish collection could mean more hands available for repair crews. For voters, the test will be whether the plan looks practical or like political theatre.
Opposition fires back
The opposition has dismissed Labor’s road maintenance plan as a “con job”, signalling a likely fight over both the cost of road repairs and the politics of prison work. The criticism lands as Labor tries to frame the policy as a practical fix rather than a headline-grabbing pledge.
If re-elected, the government says the pilot would move ahead with Corrections Victoria and be limited to supervised, minimum-security prisoners. What happens next will depend on the November election — and on whether Labor can convince voters that prisoners on the roadside are part of the answer to roads that have been falling apart for years.
