General News
28 May, 2023
Little comes when little promised on vision
EDITORIAL HOPES can never be too high when little is put on the table during the cut and thrust of election campaigns. This week’s Victorian Budget was brought down against a backdrop of burgeoning state debt, high interest repayments and the...
EDITORIAL
HOPES can never be too high when little is put on the table during the cut and thrust of election campaigns.
This week’s Victorian Budget was brought down against a backdrop of burgeoning state debt, high interest repayments and the political imperative to rein in spending.
Little if anything visionary, future-building, was forthcoming last year for Loddon communities when candidates were out on the hustings chasing votes.
The biggest ticket items were an extra $100,000 for Wedderburn’s Donaldson Park from a harness racing pot of cash, $50,000 for that town’s community house to keep doing what it does running programs to give skills and engagement of residents and, of course, the “commitment” that a State Government child care centre would be somewhere in the shire from 2026.
That was from the Government of Premier Andrews, comfortably re-elected and for the first time in almost a decade, seeing a Labor MP given the tick to represent southern Loddon communities.
But while the specific visionary projects for the future of Loddon communities were missing - better road infrastructure to handle greater use by residents and transient drivers of trucks and cars, tackling the rapidly-arriving challenges of residential development and growth already happening organically and making sure our local towns are ready to accommodate the people looking to escape spilling at the seams Bendigo - we’re not expecting too much when suggesting the Government looks at, and invests in, these demands on services that will inevitably arise within a handful years. And to set aside precious money now - outside election campaigns - to avoid costlier required contributions down the track.
Added to that, the need for better flow of flood recovery funds from the Government to have the Loddon back with an economic engine revving strongly and our part of the state could have received a bit more focus in this week’s Budget.
Country communities are too often overlooked when governments carve up the financial pie.
Because it has been happening, increasingly, for more than a century, does not make it right. Time is closer when local projects must get more than crumbs.