News

Labor continues to hurt the Ovens Valley community

Monday 27 May 2019

Nationals Member for Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy has slammed Labor’s state budget, citing a lack of local and regional Victorian funding and the axing of the $1 billion Regional Growth Fund.

Mr McCurdy said putting an end to the Regional Growth fund, which was set up by The Nationals in 2011, meant there was now no dedicated investment program for regional Victoria.

“Labor axed the Country Roads and Bridges program on coming to office, and now this - another blow to rural communities,” Mr McCurdy said.

“This is going to hurt the people of the Ovens Valley as without this funding there is no way to help develop our regional areas.

Mr McCurdy said it was frustrating that Labor had once again prioritised areas around Melbourne and in the western parts of state, and vastly ignored important north-east regional infrastructure needs.

“Labor thinks regional Victoria comprises Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong,” he said.

“There is so much more to regional Victoria than just those areas.”

Mr McCurdy said that Wangaratta High School including the new basketball facilities, as well as the Myrtleford CFA, had missed out on critical funding.

“The Stage 4 plan for the School is ready to go but Labor has ignored funding the facilities that Wangaratta so desperately needs,” he said.

“And the hopes for a new CFA station at Myrtleford are fading under Labor after they cut Emergency Capability Management, which includes CFA capital costs, from $81 million to $40 million.

Mr McCurdy said that Daniel Andrews had an opportunity to support regional centres like Wangaratta and Myrtleford in this year’s budget.

“Today we have seen Labor’s budget paper delivered under the guise that it is ‘Delivering for all Victorians’, when in fact it has let the Ovens Valley down again,” he said.