Need action and investment
NEXT week’s 2020-21 Victorian State Budget is a critical chance to lay out a plan to restore Victorians’ lives and livelihoods.
The lessons of 2020 have created unique opportunities for regional Victoria.
Enforced working from home has showed us it’s possible to have a job in the city, while living in the country.
To encourage decentralisation, The Nationals have been pushing for a $250 million fund to be implemented in this year’s State Budget.
The fund would support businesses and government agencies to permanently transform operations to allow their staff to work from home more often and live where they want to.
Supporting country communities to grow is a game changer for creating new, secure jobs and boosting investment in services, like health and education.
This year’s budget must also invest in better roads and rail for regional Victoria.
Under the Andrews Labor Government progress on projects like the Kilmore Bypass, Shepparton Bypass, Ballarat Western Link Road (stage two) and Princes Highway (west of Colac) upgrade, has stalled or is now miles behind schedule.
Other projects, like the transformational Murray Basin Rail Project, have become a disastrous mess of cost blowouts that now need significant investment to fix Labor’s mismanagement.
We can’t afford to wait years for bold ideas to revitalise our communities.
Next week, we need action and investment in a realistic way forward that drives confidence and growth for regional Victoria.
Peter Walsh
Shadow Minister for Regional Victoria and Decentralisation
Leader of The Nationals
Member for Murray Plains
Time better spent
DAN Andrews spent 120 consecutive days holding press conferences.
The premier spent a combined total of 125 hours and nine minutes answering questions in the main about restrictions, contact tracing, mask wearing and hotel quarantine.
To the party faithful, as the hours accumulated, they represented hours of strength, opportunities to control the narrative and to present the second wave in the best possible light.
The Labor Party even celebrated his 100th day press conference, conveniently or concerningly forgetting why the premier elected to hold 100 consecutive press conferences in the first place.
But let us consider what other tasks the 125 hours could have been applied to.
How else could the premier have spent those important hours, over nine days’ worth?
We heard throughout the 112-day lockdown that it was “the only way”.
Imagine if only half of those hours, a mere 60 of them or so were spent in the investigation of alternatives to the brutal lockdown that has affected so many Victorians so badly.
With an additional 125 hours to utilise, and with calls to Beyond Blue up 77 per cent in Victoria compared with other states, consider what changes the premier might have made to his blueprint, had he spent 20 of those hours sitting next to telephone operators at mental health services, hearing the agony of those calling in to describe their despair, their loneliness, their feelings of abject misery.
With a massive 45.6 per cent of emergency patients requiring mental health support not receiving this support within the appropriate timeframe, would the premier have focused more on solving the problems of contact tracing knowing that every additional lockdown hour for those suffering mental health issues was one hour too much?
Would the singles travel bubble have been so long in the making or had so many limitations placed on it had the premier listened to those suffering so?
Understanding between 1000-1200 people per day were losing their jobs, imagine if the premier had spent 40 hours talking to small business owners or, to the associations who support them, to find other ways forward that didn’t result in financial and emotional heartache.
There are now more than 500,000 Victorians unemployed. How many additional hours of top-level thinking might have prevented this?
Or perhaps the premier could have spent 20 hours talking to those of various faiths about their COVID-safe plans, instead of assuming that they were unable to practice their respective faiths safely, further contributing to the mental health toll on the Victorian community.
As is stands, all religious gatherings indoors are still limited to a blanket 20 persons — could this have been investigated more thoroughly so that numbers of worshippers allowed to a gathering were a function of the size of the place of worship?
And how about those in hospitality, could they have benefitted from 40 hours of dedicated premier time, to try to salvage an industry that fears a substantial percentage of their group will no longer be in existence this time next year?
The manner in which cafes and restaurants were required to divide up their dining spaces was only announced October 28 — surely some extra consideration time would have resulted in the premier realising that such barriers can’t be whipped up on day one? Or what about in his own government?
The premier could have spent his hours ensuring that the contact tracing system was better than ‘gold standard’, that the QR code system adopted by NSW could be implemented Victoria-wide providing every Victorian with some confidence that a third wave is a decreasing possibility.
As it stands, we still do not have an effective QR code system.
There were many questions that the premier answered during his 120-day run, but never the most basic one: how did his incompetent management leave Victorians so woefully equipped to manage the basics that the other states mastered so easily?
You had 125 hours, premier.
Did we get value for your time?
David Hodgett,
Shadow Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events
State Member for Croydon
Small but meaningful
TO mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the federal government released a Commemorative Medallion and Certificate of Commemoration in July this year for all living veterans of that conflict.
The medallion and certificate are a small but meaningful way that we, as a grateful nation, are saying thank you to those who served during the largest global conflict of the 20th century.
Almost one million Australians served during the Second World War and some 6000 living Second World War veterans have now applied out of around 12,000 still alive today. This means that there are veterans out there who are yet to apply, or have a family or friend do so on their behalf.
I’ve been humbled to deliver a number of these medallions to some of our nation’s veterans and hear their stories. One story that was shared with me is that of Fred Bainbridge who recently received his medallion during a special presentation at his local RSL.
Remarkably, Fred is the last of five brothers who all served in the Second World War. What is even more remarkable is that all five brothers returned from the war.
Inspired by his brothers, Fred lied about his age when enlisting so that he could follow in their footsteps. He was originally deployed to Dutch New Guinea to defend against any Japanese advance and was then sent to Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. Fred was eventually repatriated home after being shot in the shoulder.
When accepting his medallion, Fred was overcome with pride and humbled to be receiving the special thank you.
There is still time to apply to receive the Commemorative Medallion and Certificate of Commemoration, or have a family or friend do so on the living veteran’s behalf. Apply online at www.dva.gov.au/medallion or by calling 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372) during business hours.
Together let’s ensure that as many of our living Second World War veterans receive this commemorative medallion and certificate in recognition of their service and efforts that they made to protect our way of life 75 years ago.
Darren Chester,
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
Minister for Defence Personnel
Splash, not before spruce
WELL done to Swan Hill Rural City Council and Belgravia Leisure in reopening the Swan Hill outdoor pool last Saturday.
The photos and report on the back page of last Friday’s The Guardian (November 13) provided great publicity to encourage our community to get out and do some physical exercise and make use of this fantastic 50m pool, water slide and diving pool with 3m spring board all in a riverside setting.
Visiting the outdoor pool last Saturday, I observed that The Guardian article had definitely “sold it short”, failing to mention the long-overdue facility maintenance and upgrade works completed during September and October by council with funding from the Victorian State Government Working for Victoria program.
This program employs local people displaced from their jobs as a result of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The appearance of the whole facility has been significantly enhanced by extensive repainting, replacing faded shade cloth, new screen fencing along Monash Drive, maintenance of change rooms and toilets, new roller doors at the entrance, water leak reduction works, upgrade to signage, lawns and garden beds neat and tidy, absolutely awesome.
Congratulations to all the Working for Victoria team members, council staff and last, but not least, Belgravia Leisure management and staff involved, especially Brad Pitt.
One group were really keen to begin their swimming season at the pool waiting for half-an-hour for the gates to open and one of my neighbours, who goes by the name of “Bill”, purchased a season ticket for what I thought was a very reasonable price.
With outdoor exercise venues considered by health experts to be 20 times safer than indoor facilities in terms of potential for COVID-19 transmission, Swan Hillians can have peace of mind that they are exercising in a very COVID-safe environment.
So, get on out there and have fun.
Lindsay McRae,
Swan Hill
