By Wayne Kayler-Thomson
The upcoming May State Budget should take into account the economic importance of regional Victoria in the context of our overall future.
Over the next decade, regional Victoria will play an increasingly important role in helping Victoria meet the challenges of population growth and climate change. As such, the Government must use the upcoming May State Budget to set the foundations for success in this task.
While already important, regional Victoria will assume a greater role in meeting our State’s primary food sources; it will contribute food and fibre export income, and will provide most of our energy and water needs. Our regions will also be even more important in contributing to high yield tourism services and the attraction of overseas visitors, especially in the food and wine, spa and wellness and nature-based tourism areas.
Regional Victoria will play an important role in absorbing its share of Melbourne’s population growth. In order to do so successfully, existing links between regional centres and Melbourne need to be maintained and improved.
In addition, regional cities themselves need to be better linked to help reduce the historical strong reliance on Melbourne and build the regional economy in aggregate. Extensions of duplicated highways should be accelerated, for example between Ballarat and Horsham, and four-lane highways should be a minimum requirement between the cities of Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Shepparton, connecting to the Hume Highway.
It is also important that regional Victoria is adequately supported in the structural adjustment process that will see new pressures brought to bear on traditional energy-producing regions and their workforces and wider communities as a result of climate change and the policy responses of Governments.
As many regional centres transform from blue-collar towns to lifestyle centres, it is vital that liveability expectations are met.
This will require improved transport, health, social, cultural and recreational infrastructure, which in turn will help drive economic activity.
VECCI Pre-Budget submission – general and specific regional recommendations:
- Cut payroll tax from 4.95 to 4.85 percent; cut middle land tax rates; reduce average WorkCover premium by 5 percent
- Accelerating existing planned social infrastructure projects including the redevelopment of Bendigo Hospital and Bendigo law courts.
- Investment in new bays and maritime infrastructure initiatives, including the Geelong Marine Industry Precinct, Portarlington Harbour and Foreshore, Cowes-Stony Point car ferry (completing the Great Southern Touring Route between Great Ocean Road and Wilsons Promontory), Apollo Bay Harbour redevelopment, Gippsland Lakes boating infrastructure and Mildura riverfront
- Improved nature-based tourism facilities in regional Victoria, including the Great Ocean Road Interpretive Centre, and the Alpine and Grampians Long Distance Trails.
- Funding for the maintenance of existing tourist attraction infrastructure including the Philip Island Nature Park, Zoos Victoria and cultural attractions.
- The extension of the Geelong Bypass to the Surf Coast and the Bellarine Peninsula.
- Improved regional links to assist regions absorb population growth. In particular, the completion of the Shepparton and Nagambie bypasses and duplicated highways between Ballarat and Horsham, Traralgon and Sale and Geelong and Colac, and a regional Super Highway to link Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Shepparton.
- Funding to facilitate improvements to the ports of Geelong, Portland, Hastings and/or Barry’s Beach.
- Infrastructural investments to improve business tourism and trade development, including seed funding for a scoping study to progress the establishment of a new convention and exhibition centre in Geelong and development of the cultural precinct.
- To enhance regional liveability, funding for the upgrade of the Ballarat rail station.
- A comprehensive study examining the impact and opportunities for vulnerable regional communities and industries that will result from shifts in energy generation technologies towards low emissions energy sources.
- New State Government funding to support the development and commercialisation of alternative, low carbon energy technologies where regional Victoria has a competitive and comparative advantage.
- Investment support for alternative (non power) opportunities for brown coal – from agricultural applications and biochar through to coal to liquids and other products with significant commercial export potential. This should include recognition and support for associated income generating services including intellectual know-how and technology transfer.
I have for a long time wanted to see Victoria’s regional cities play a much greater role in the economy and in the long-run politics of the state. I am in all support of a Melbourne that could take on the likes of the largest cities in the world (with the infrastructure and governance to support this of course) but our regional cities have been far left behind and despite some calls, there seems to be little success in the statistics.
The population is rising at a reasonable rate it seems but Melbourne is set to maintain about 70% of our population maybe even increase this percentage. We could perhaps limit immigration severly (as they mostly seem to head to Melbourne) this would naturally give the regional cities a better chance then focus on motivating a higher birth rate without forceful measures, relying instead on natural economic and social theory from days gone by (what about when England had a huge birth rate, so it can be done).
The details of this of course is in the hands of experts but I think the strategy should be changed where it can be best controlled by having a tighter immigration policy then allowing the economy to take its course whilst encourageing it in the right direction.
If this all worked, Victoria could be a economical powerhouse and if the other major Australian states followed suit Australia could finally be a confident more independant power in its own right with the economic (and in turn military) clout to back it up.