One Gippsland identifies seven government budget funding priorities

One Gippsland represents leaders in the region's local government, industry and education sectors.

Chairman East Gippsland shire councillor Mark Reeves said One Gippsland didn't want to put a total figure on the total budget "ask".

"Some of this money is for planning, some of it is for infrastructure projects that are pushed out into forward estimates and some will be local government/state government funded applications or expressions of interest," he said.

"Some of the projects have already been announced, the west Gippsland hospital, was committed to in the state budget last year."

Other projects were "shovel ready."

He said the One Gippsland budget submission pointed to seven key areas requiring funding: fast tracking road freight, tourism recovery, digital connectivity, education, improving rail reliability, health and food and fibre.

The submission pointed out a recent report, produced by SGS Economics, showed Gippsland had undergone a series of economic shocks, between 2015 and 2020.

The combined effect of the COVID-19 restrictions, bushfires, dairy crisis, drought and Hazelwood power station closure had resulted in a direct output loss of $3.28 billion, with a Gross Regional Product drop of $2.66 billion.

The submission pointed out Gippsland's produce required a freight network that could provide efficient access to Port of Melbourne, Port of Hastings, Geelong and Melbourne Airport.

"Gippsland's food and fibre producers have a goal of increasing their annual output but to achieve this, they must remain competitive when dealing in both domestic and international export markets" the report found.

The annual gross value of Gippsland food and fibre was $7 billion, with $1.3 billion in exports.

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Cr Reeves said one of the biggest issues was around road, rail and digital connectivity.

"Our concerns are around road and rail bottlenecks into, and through, Melbourne," he said.

"We need to get that produce out of Gippsland and into the markets in a safe, reasonable and expeditious way."

Cr Reeves said at least $240 million in transport priority projects, including upgrades to the Sale Alternate Truck Route and realignment of the South Gippsland Highway, Korumburra, had been identified in the submission.

The Sale alternate route could not account for large heavy vehicles, such as B-Doubles and Over Size Over Mass (OSOM) vehicles.

"This is due to the alternative route having two load-limited bridges which can only support vehicles up to the size of a semi-trailer," the submission said.

Works required included upgrades to Myrtlebank Road, Myrtlebank-Fulham Road and Sale-Heyfield Road.

"We are also looking at rail bypasses, because at the moment passenger rail has priority and that's an issue," Cr Reeves said.

"Freight train operations are limited, or delayed, because of this competition for access," the submission found.

"Currently, there is no holding or stopping point for freight trains approaching metro Melbourne at Pakenham East which further exacerbates delays and reliability issues, as well as impacting passenger services."

The submission asks for a crossing loop, to the east of Pakenham, as a holding point for freight trains.

In terms of food and fibre, One Gippsland was asking for $1 million for the Max Biocare Research Park and organic mushroom farm, Yinnar, nearly $700,000 for the extension of a food export program and $750,000 to build on a provenance and traceability system.

The submission said an analysis of digital intensity requirements found that food and fibre would rely heavily on digital services over the next three to five years, if it was to retain competitiveness in the Australian and international market.

"Of the five key primary production regions in Gippsland, 100 per cent have a major supply shortfall in fixed access broadband services for business users; and 60pc have an intermediate supply shortfall for LPWAN IoT (low-power wide area network Internet of Things)," the submission said.

"For these reasons, One Gippsland is calling for Gippsland to be prioritised in the next rounds of the Mobile Blackspot Program, the Regional Connectivity Program and the Connecting Victoria Program."

Cr Reeves said funding was also being sought to revitalise the tourism industry, which was "smashed" during the pandemic.

"I think you could say that tourism just died a death," he said.

"Just about every job in the visitor economy disappeared in east Gippsland - it's a really significant industry for us, seven million visitors a year pre-pandemic," he said.

"Seven million to zero is a pretty big drop."

Cr Reeves said politicians were aware of the issues facing the region, and appeared keen to assist.

"Gippsland is one of the fastest growing areas in the State with our population expected to increase by 26 per cent by 2036, so it's important that we plan ahead and invest in the right infrastructure for our region's future," he said.