When nothing changes, everything stays the same.
I don’t believe more of the same is the answer to solving our state’s challenges with centralised population growth, we need to do something different for all of Victoria to thrive.
This is what drives the Liberal Nationals’ work on a whole-of-government focus to grow all of Victoria – not just Melbourne. Ararat is desperate for something different.
The western Victorian town of about 8000 has a tremendous opportunity to grow their community, with three major employers on the hunt for about 700 new workers between them.
It’s a windfall most regional Victorian towns could only dream of.
Several hundred skilled workers and their families would boost investment in local businesses, boost student numbers at local schools and see more people volunteering with local community groups.
Although a jobs boom is within grasp, the frustration for the Ararat community is that they can’t find the workers to fill these jobs.
The local council believes that unless something changes to attract people to the town, they’ll miss out altogether.
Country Victorians are losing out as the Andrews Labor Government goes through the same old motions.
In a year just 20,106 people move to regional Victoria, while 126,000 move to Melbourne.
Something needs to change.
We must do things differently.
The Liberal Nationals are working on a whole-of-government plan to make sure our regional communities grow, consulting with people around the state as part of our Victorian Population Policy Taskforce.
To grow all of the state, we need to see better schools and hospitals, better connectivity and better roads. Government would play a leading role in the Liberal Nationals’ plans for decentralisation, moving public sector jobs out to the regions – and not just to Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.
To be successful this work can’t be done with a silo approach, with just a single government agency working towards this goal.
A Liberal Nationals government would appoint a Minister for Decentralisation to oversee a whole-of-government plan, to make sure all departments are supporting Regional Development Victoria and working towards the same goal to grow country Victoria.
Nothing will change while the city-centric Andrews Government is obsessed with looking inwards towards Melbourne and taking a hands off approach to regional Victoria.
Country Victoria’s best days are ahead of us, but we need to break the mould and do something different if we want to reach our full potential and deliver the opportunities our communities want and need.