A PROJECT to deliver natural gas to regional Victoria — including Swan Hill, Robinvale and Kerang — will not be axed, despite recent media reports claiming the Labor Government would scrap the initiative.
The Energy for the Regions program was developed by the former Coalition Government, with Swan Hill, Robinvale and Kerang among 11 towns earmarked to receive trucked natural gas in an $85 million commitment before the last year’s state election.
This week, Minister for Regional Development Jaala Pulford has been forced to hit back at claims the government would ditch the plan.
A report in The Weekly Times said the government was poised to axe the program, with “experts believ((ing)) gas no longer promises to be the cheap energy many country communities hoped would attract new businesses and jobs”.
Ms Pulford strongly denied the claims yesterday and said the State Government did plan to proceed with the program.
But she labelled it a “white elephant of the Coalition’s making”.
“Let’s be clear — this is a botched program plagued by budget and timeline blowouts — it was under-funded and over-sold,” she said.
But it wasn’t only The Weekly Times who predicted the Energy for the Regions program would come to an untimely end — Nationals MP Member for Northern Victoria Damian Drum discussed the program in an address to parliament last week.
He said the $100 million project “is going to be scrapped” with some contracts with the regional towns to be followed through, but not all — including Swan Hill.
A spokesperson for Ms Pulford told The Guardian yesterday the project would proceed.
“I can confirm the Andrews Labor Government will proceed with the Energy for the Regions program – any claims to the contrary by the Weekly Times or Damian Drum are incorrect,” she said.
“We are still determining the full extent of the Coalition’s mismanagement of the roll-out and its impact on the regional communities that have been promised natural gas.”
For more on this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (March 6).
