VICTORIA’S peak regional council body has joined the opposition in slamming the state budget handed down on Tuesday 20 May as having failed to deliver for rural communities. Rural Councils Victoria chairperson Rob Amos said the state was being financially rescued by hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Victoria’s rural communities through the ESVF levy. “Despite using rural communities to prop up the state’s finances, this budget fails to deliver for rural communities,” Cr Amos said. “Most of the spending is pre-announced or business as usual, with very few new initiatives for rural voters. “Investing in new schools and roads upgrades is the bare minimum we expect from government. “Rural Victoria is bearing the brunt of tax increases with very little to show for it.” RCV claims the budget had no new measures to support rural councils to deliver essential programs and basic infrastructure with current limited revenue. Cr Amos said there were some positive elements in the budget, such as $50m of the Victorian Investment Fund earmarked for regional Victoria to promote economic growth and new jobs. He also lauded $74.1m funding for the previously announced Economic Growth Statement from which $10 million will be spent on critical basic infrastructure needed to support new homes, such as sewerage and water connections. A further $3.5m will be used for cutting red tape across regional areas, including digitising regional council systems and $400,000 for the creation of Regional Launching Pads to help stimulate regional businesses. Cr Amos said RCV looked forward to working with the government to identify further opportunities to reduce the tax burden and deliver better outcomes for rural communities. Nationals’ leader Danny O’Brien said the budget had short-changed regional Victoria and delivered another ‘heartless blow’ on the same day that 5000 people rallied at Parliament House to protest the ESVF levy. He said agriculture funding had been cut by 13 per cent ($77.6m) despite the crippling drought in many areas. “Debt gets worse, and we will be paying $28.9 million per day in interest – money that could be going to boosting regional hospitals, investing in schools, and fixing our roads,” Mr O’Brien said. “This budget yet again shows that Labor can’t manage money and regional Victorians are paying the price.” Mr O’Brien also said Premier Jacinta Allan dodged questions in Parliament on Tuesday, 27 May on claims that ‘every cent’ from the tax would go towards boosting emergency services. He said budget papers show the new tax will raise an additional $600 million in the next financial year, but money for emergency services would be cut by $203 million in the same period. Ms Allan said during question time that Mr O’Brien was wrong and accused the opposition of cutting funding to the CFA and MFB when in government. “This is why we have brought about change to an existing levy,” Ms Allan said. “It is about making sure that the SES has the support that (it) deserves.” Mr O’Brien said that budget papers had shown the opposite. “If the Premier was true to her word that every cent was going to emergency services, we would not be talking about a $203 million reduction in funding for the emergency services output.” Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland took aim at the budget’s failure to deliver on road maintenance and said budget papers revealed ‘massive’ shortcomings in reaching road repair targets in the past year, with just 566,000 square metres of their 1million sqm target being repaired. Ms Cleeland said this year’s target had also been reduced to just 70,000 sqm with government data showed that 91 per cent of roads surveyed across the state were in poor or very poor condition. She said the 11 per cent increase in rural and regional road fatalities this year was a sobering reminder of the urgent need for safer roads. “We need true investment in fixing our roads and an increase in preventative maintenance,” Ms Cleeland said. “Every week I am contacted by people in our community who have grave concerns about roads in our region.” Ms Cleeland said the impact of weather events on roads was a ‘ticking timebomb’ which could be mitigated by resealing surfaces against water penetration that causes potholes. “The ineffective patch-up work they are doing now fails to withstand the slightest resistance and is contributing to the poor state of our roads.”
