The Victorian Liberals have been mocked by the state government following an embarrassing blunder earlier this week.
On Tuesday, the state opposition launched a three-month campaign calling on Victorians to name and shame the state’s worst roads.
But it was quickly discovered the drone vision used on the newly launched website was actually stock footage of a damaged road in Ukraine.
The mistake was met with laughs from Labor when it was raised by reporters on Thursday.
“Where do you begin?” Roads Minister Ben Carroll said.
“The main feature of that campaign was not a road from Victoria, not even a road from Australia, but it was a road from Ukraine.”
The video, which was from 2019 and sourced from major generic footage provider iStock, was quickly removed from the website.
The Victorians Liberals said in a statement on Tuesday: “Stock footage was used as a starting point but it’s since been replaced”.
Mr Carroll went further in his criticism, pointing out there is currently no shadow road safety minister.
“It’s quite insensitive at the present time and I thought for seven years of opposition all they’ve got to show is another competition and East West Link,” he said.
“They’ve got a lot more work to do, but I just thought it showed a very amateurish performance from the opposition.”
Premier Daniel Andrews also could not resist having a crack.
“I tell you what, you can’t run a website but you want to run the state,” he said.
The campaign was launched by the Victorian Liberals to get safety reports straight from drivers on the state’s worst roads.
“Decades of neglect has left Victoria’s roads rough and potholed, risking the lives of motorcyclists, car drivers and truckies every single day,” Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said.
“There have been 76 lives lost on Victorian roads already this year, but Labor is spending less on maintaining and repairing the state’s roads network.”
