Claims that Regional Victoria hasn’t been prioritised in the latest state budget have been dismissed by the Allan government.
Victorian Nationals leader, Peter Walsh, claims that Labor allocated just $2 billion to regional Victorians out of a $98 billion total spend in the latest state budget on infrastructure and services across the state.
The government had strong words in response to Walsh’s claims, saying, “The $45 billion it has spent in the regions since 2014 speaks volumes compared to the $1.8 billion invested when Walsh was at the Cabinet table.”
A Victorian Government spokesperson called Walsh and the Liberal National Party “all talk, with no action on regional funding” saying the only thing they delivered during their time in office was “cuts and closures”.
For place-based expenditure, the Victorian Budget 2024/25 invests roughly $2 in regional Victoria for every $5 spent in metropolitan Melbourne – making about 28 per cent of investments in the regions.
“Our latest Budget invests about 28 per cent of place-based expenditure in our regions — to support local jobs close to home, more community infrastructure, and attract more visitors to boost local economies,” a government spokesperson says.
This investment has led to a historically low regional unemployment rate of 3.8 per cent as of April 2024 – down 2.8 percentage points since November 2014.
There were 839,500 persons employed in regional Victoria in April 2024, an increase of 181,200 workers since November 2014.
The government is delivering infrastructure projects and jobs for Regional Victorians, including the Twelve Apostles Precinct, the Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre, and new employment precincts attracting hundreds of new businesses from Gippsland and Wodonga to Bendigo and Ballarat.
The Allan Labor Government is also backing communities statewide to benefit from investments in programs ranging from access to Free TAFE, major hospital upgrades, support for live music acts and the arts, among many other initiatives.
