Emma Kealy – Letter to the Editor
Monday 27 May 2024
Dear Editor,
The recent State Budget was a terrible blow to regional Victorians, with so much pain in the detail.
We, in regional Victoria, make up 25 per cent of the state’s population, yet our regional communities have only been allocated just two per cent of the Allan Labor Government’s infrastructure expenditure.
You read that correctly! Regional Victorians receive just $2 billion of total $98 billion infrastructure spend.
During Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings, designed to drill down on the budget numbers, the government failed to justify the gulf in funding between metropolitan and regional areas.
This is an insult and highlights the urgent need for fair investment. A quarter of total expenditure would be fair, given the population breakdown.
This government is clearly prioritising metropolitan voters.
You don’t have to be a mathematician to be astounded by the city versus regional great divide.
The Nationals took an infrastructure guarantee to the 2022 State Election that allocated 25 per cent of government’s infrastructure investment be made in regional communities.
Our policy would have ensured regional Victorians received their fair share.
We deserve equitable funding and will continue to hold the government accountable for this.
Labor can’t manage money and regional Victorians are paying the price.