The death of a motorcyclist on a country Victorian road has renewed scrutiny of the state's pothole problem and prompted fresh calls for urgent road repairs.
Peter Mason, 71, was killed after he struck a pothole and crashed on the Western Highway near Ballarat on Sunday.
Rob Salvatore, chair of the Victorian Motorcycle Council, said the incident highlighted the danger posed by poor road conditions, while Victorian Nationals leader Danny O'Brien said immediate repairs were needed to prevent more deaths.
The condition of Victorian roads has become an issue ahead of the state election in November, with Premier Ben Carroll last month acknowledging the state's roads were "not good enough".
On Tuesday, Carroll said the pothole believed to be responsible for Mason's death has been fixed.
According to a Victorian Auditor-General's report tabled in state parliament last week, nearly half of Victoria's more than 23,000km state road network was in poor or poor condition in 2024 — up from 39 per cent in 2021.
Defects are also outpacing maintenance, with the gap between identified and rectified problems more than doubling between January 2025 and June 2026.
According to the auditor-general, the transport department estimated it would cost more than $3 billion to maintain existing road pavements and replace age-expired roads, but only $1.04 billion was allocated for 2026-27.
The state Opposition's plan is to invest $5 billion over four years to maintain and repair roads, including fixing one million potholes.
A 2023 Grattan Institute report found many councils — which manage more than 75 per cent of Australia's roads — operate under a "worst-first" scheme, meaning roads are only fixed when they become unusable.