Ben Carroll Proposes Using Prisoners for Road Maintenance

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll announced a pilot program to employ supervised, minimum-security prisoners for basic roadside maintenance, including mowing, weeding, and rubbish collection. The initiative aims to free up skilled crews to repair 500,000 potholes by the end of January, provided the Labor government is re-elected in November.

To fund the effort, the government increased the road maintenance budget to between $352 million and $354 million, partially by delaying level-crossing removals in Highett and Mentone. Carroll also pledged to reduce reliance on private contractors by bringing maintenance back in-house and launching a new reporting website for motorists.

Shadow Roads Minister Danny O'Brien dismissed the proposal as a "con job," citing years of neglect and proposing a competing $5 billion plan to fix one million potholes. Legal experts and the Australian Lawyers Alliance criticized the program as a cynical political tool, arguing that the use of inmates paid significantly below the minimum wage amounts to the exploitation of cheap labor.