Strathbogie's wishlist for this year's budget

FEDERAL Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has met with Strathbogie Shire mayor Cr Chris Raeburn on Tuesday as part of a delegation of mayors from nine regional municipalities within the Indi electorate. He was due to meet with Dr Helen Haines (MHR, Indi) who was to put her budget wish list for the government to consider, which including funding for initiatives in local communities, but the recent snap lockdown in Victoria put a stop to that. But that didn’t mean Cr Raeburn did not have the chance to discuss local issues with the Federal Treasurer when they met, with a key area of concern being connectivity for both internet and phone coverage. “The Ruffy and Strathbogie communities are experiencing significant mobile coverage issues due to a fault at the Mt Wombat tower,” Cr Raeburn said. “This fault puts many people without a phone service. A service they rely on to keep their families, friends and neighbours safe. “This is a serious issue that I will raise with the Treasurer.” Cr Raeburn said he also planned to speak about the struggle for reliable internet speed and coverage in the region, which he said was “unacceptable”. He will also meet with the senior adviser to Federal Communications Minister Paul Fletcher to raise these same concerns Cr Raeburn will also raise support for business, tourism and community recovery from the coronavirus pandemic as priority areas where he would call on the Treasurer to invest heavily. “While our community has so far escaped the coronavirus pandemic, we have been hit hard by lock downs and restrictions which have affected business and tourism,” Cr Raeburn said. “Another key discussion I plan to raise is the need for investment in more reliable power supply for our area. “Despite being just 90 minutes from Melbourne, we are missing out on investment in our region because business cannot rely on a consistent power supply.” He also seeking to meet advisers to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack to discuss the community’s concern surrounding the Australian Rail Track Corporation’s (ARTC) upgrade project for the Euroa rail precinct. Council is seeking a deliberate engagement process that will allow the Euroa community to reach a group decision on the future design of the precinct Dr Haines' budget priorities echo the needs that Cr Raeburn have highlighted - emergency preparedness, digital connectivity and tourism recovery. "The last time I pitched to the Treasurer was before the unusual and extraordinary budget in October was that we really needed a designated tourism and infrastructure fund and we got that so we'll be expanding on that this time." A number of tourism related projects for Euroa have been suggested for funding in Dr Haines’ submission. These include $350,000 to upgrade the Rockies Pedestrian Bridge over 12 months which would be upgraded to help people of all abilities cross the creek. Funding of $130,000 to help upgrade the Euroa Community Cinema will once again be put to the Federal government, to match the same amount given to the cinema in the 2020-21 Victorian State budget. The cinema was included in Dr Haines’ federal budget submission last year no funds were committed. Other high profile projects that need multimillion dollar funding and have reached masterplan stage will be served up to the Treasurer which includes improvement to telecommunications access in bushfire prone areas. Some $467m over 10 years would fund the Indi Independent's flagship policy item to establish 50 local power hubs across regional Australia and create a $310m fund to support the development of community-owned projects, similar to the one in Yackandandah. Dr Haines will also echo her call for the government to ensure it will deliver the North East Rail Line upgrade to standard and on time with a provision of ongoing maintenance funding.