Mr Purcell will put forward the radical proposal in a motion to State Parliament this week, which he says will help country areas get a better share of road funding.

He said his idea was borne out of frustration at decades of inaction over the poor state of south-west roads.

“By repeating what you do you don’t improve, so you need to change,” Mr Purcell said.

“It’s time we had a serious look at the way it actually operates.

“We’re calling for VicRoads to be split into country and city roads so we get some attention in the country.”

Mr Purcell said having a body specifically dedicated to country roads would allow communities to have greater influence over which roads received attention.

The upper house MP, who is based in Port Fairy, said not enough happened even when the south-west had a premier in the South West Coast seat and a roads minister in the neighbouring district of Polwarth.

“If you can’t get attention with two of the senior ministers in government to get our roads fixed, with junior members you’re going to struggle,” Mr Purcell said.

Mr Purcell said south-west residents had been waiting for decades, and the issue was not about a lack of funding.

“It isn’t necessarily about more money, it’s better value for money and to be spent on roads that it needs to be spent on,” he said.

VicRoads regional director, south-west, Mark Koliba said the organisation had listened to communities to help identify roads needing attention and pointed to the state government’s August announcement of $44.4 million for upgrades to the region’s roads.

“More than 240 kilometres of road will undergo resurfacing works including Foxhow Road, Portland-Casterton Road and Hamilton-Port Fairy Road,” he said.

Mr Purcell’s proposal will be read this week, but is not likely to be debated until sometime next month.