Katherine to Darwin Highway a Mess

Fay Miller, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, has described the state of the road between Katherine and Darwin as terrible and urged the Territory Government to increase road maintenance to bring the road back to an acceptable standard.

"The Stuart Highway between Katherine and Darwin has become and accident waiting with numerous potholes posing a serious risk to motorists," says Mrs Miller.

"The verges are also a major problem on the highway. They have soft edges, are hidden and are not cut to width, which increases the probability of animals running onto the road unseen by drivers until its too late.

"Whilst these road conditions are a real danger to locals, they pose and even greater threat to tourists unfamiliar with the drive between Katherine and Darwin.

"Road accidents have a detrimental impact on the tourism industry with crashes often receiving extensive coverage in the home state of the victim. That's not good tourism.

"Blaming the wet for the poor condition of the highway just isn't good enough. It's the same story every year and the Territory Government should be better prepared to tackle the inevitable potholes the wet brings.

"The Federal Government has provided $36.8 million towards the 'AusLink Network', which includes the section of the Stuart Highway from Katherine to Darwin.

"Yet with all this money the Territory Government still can't manage to fix the verges and repair the potholes.

"I just hope it doesn't take someone to be seriously injured or even killed on the road before the Labour Government wakes up to itself and fixes the problem.

"The Territory used to have the best roads in the country but there's no way we could make that claim now."

2008-04-06