General News
3 February, 2023
Hope for a fairer deal
By PETER WALSHMY HOPE for 2023 and beyond is simple – to see regional Victoria gets its fair share of the cake. To see its roads and rail services rescued from their current state of decay – there’s nowhere you can travel in regional Victori...
By PETER WALSH
MY HOPE for 2023 and beyond is simple – to see regional Victoria gets its fair share of the cake.
To see its roads and rail services rescued from their current state of decay – there’s nowhere you can travel in regional Victoria without having to weave from side to side to dodge potholes, crumbling edges and, in some cases, whole stretches of rod where the surface has been chewed up by traffic use way beyond its capacity.
To see enough doctors and allied health professionals attracted to regional hubs and towns to save people waiting months to see a GP – or heading to a big city for help. And for the many country towns in dire need of hospital upgrades, and replacements, to get their share of the billions of dollars being splashed around infrastructure projects in Melbourne.
If we don’t get progress there now, playing catch-up will only deepen the regional and rural health crisis.
To see enough teachers attracted to country schools to give students, especially high school students, the range of subject choices they need to have a reasonably level playing field when aiming for university spots and future careers. But we also need to remember the formative years of education are irreplaceable in equipping our young people with the skills they need to make the most of the rest of their time in school. To see their schools upgraded and better equipped so our children don’t want to abandon their hometowns in search of more choices.
To see serious and significant investment in childcare across regional Victoria, where it’s not like Melbourne, or Geelong and Ballarat, where you have a choice of care alternatives.
In too many regional towns there is no choice, because there is absolutely no childcare. How can we expect to attract young families to regional Victoria if we can’t offer them something as basic as reliable childcare so parents can work if they want to?
To see a drastic overhaul of the aged care industry, so regional Victorians who have done the hard yards, who have been contributors, get treated with the dignity, respect and compassion they deserve.
Increasingly the only news about the aged care sector is bad news. There needs to be enough investment to ensure quality residences staffed by quality personnel, are available so our senior citizens can live in safe and peaceful surrounds with the thanks of us all for their contribution to regional Victoria.
Unfortunately, my hopes and my vision are almost certainly at odds as the vision I see ahead in 2023 is an uphill battle to fight for just some progress in all or any of the above.
Regional Victoria is, and always has been, out of sight, out of mind, with this Andrews Government.
Just take a quick look at the Swan Hill hospital upgrade. It is a two-stage multi-million dollar project and wouldn’t it make sense, while the workers are there now doing stage one, that stage two planning and approvals get fast-tracked so all that personnel and equipment can stay on site and work straight through?
But I doubt anyone in Spring Street is listening, even though The Nationals had this strategy as a priority if elected the chances Daniel Andrews and his gang will pick up on this blindingly obvious solution to get the hospital up to speed will be ignored.
While the Premier and his union cronies try to hide the billions and billions of dollars in debt being racked up on the out-of-control ‘Big Build’ (which should be called the Big Bill for accuracy), my Nationals colleagues and I will be in there fighting to make sure regional Victoria remains a priority on the political agenda.
* Peter Walsh is the member for
Murray Plains