Bills mounting rapidly for people in outer suburban areas
Driving on toll roads can put a major strain on household budgets, but for many people in the outer suburbs, there isn't much choice.
Transcript
00:00 I'm in Paterson Lakes in Melbourne's outer south east.
00:05 The quickest way to get to central Melbourne from here is along this toll road you can
00:09 see in the background behind me.
00:12 And that will set you back about $10 each way.
00:14 So if you're commuting from here on that toll road, it will cost you about $20 a day.
00:20 New data that's been obtained by the local legal centre shows about half of Victoria's
00:25 toll road fines come from this part of Melbourne.
00:28 And I'm talking about Dandenong, Frankston, Casey, the outer south east of Melbourne.
00:34 When we spoke to the community legal centre, they told us that they're seeing on average
00:38 people with fines of about $12,000 each.
00:42 They're struggling to put food on the table and they're grappling with their utilities
00:47 and communication.
00:48 So the fines is well down the list of their priorities unfortunately.
00:54 For many that access our fines clinic, they want to pay the fines.
00:58 They simply don't have enough money to pay.
01:02 Now we're just a few weeks out from a federal by-election in the seat of Dunkley which centres
01:07 around Frankston in the south east.
01:10 And the cost of living is set to be a huge issue.
01:13 All the candidates have been talking about it and people we've been speaking to have
01:16 said cost of living and housing, these are the big issues for voters making up their
01:22 minds ahead of the Dunkley by-election.
01:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]