When I was first elected, I ran a survey in the small towns called The Pitch.

I knew a bit about the broader Mallee. But as a girl who spent most of her time in Mildura, I didn’t want to assume too much. So we asked our small-town constituents to pitch their priorities and the results spoke loudly. At the top of the list was roads.

And the story wasn’t great. As the second largest electorate in the state geographically, our road network is bloody huge and for a whole lot of structural reasons (which I’ll talk about later), our rural Councils cannot maintain them on their own. They need substantial assistance from the State and Federal Governments. I knew there were lots of rural electorates competing for roads funding, so I had to be creative to get attention.

And voila, the “Sh*t Roads Tour” was born, involving a road trip that covered “10 sh*t roads in 10 days” and a Greta Thunberg style one-woman strike on the steps of parliament, featuring me and a large white sign that stated “Parlistrejk for Sh*t Roads” in thick black texta. A survey determined the ten top priority roads and while not all have been funded, we have had some success including the Robinvale-Sea Lake Road and the Henty Highway.

If re-elected, we’ll keep fighting for the others and more.