Rural Victoria’s plea: Andrews must “govern for all”

Rural and regional Victorian voters feel forgotten by Labor, despite Premier Daniel Andrews promise to “govern for all”.

Rural communities have called on Premier Daniel Andrews to honour his election night promise to “govern for all Victorians”.

During his victory speech Mr Andrews said “there were some Victorians who could not see their way clear to support our plan, (but) I want to be very clear, we will govern for all Victorians.”

“We will deliver each and every element of our positive plan to benefit each and every Victorian, no matter how you voted, no matter what your view and opinions. That’s what our job is.

But the Premier’s words were cold comfort to the harvest and haulage contractors who have been forced out of native forests and their colleagues in 12 sawmills and the Maryvale paper mill who face being stood down due to the consequent log shortage.

Orbost native timber harvest and haulage contractor Rob Brunt said Mr Andrews was governing for all “as long as you live in Melbourne”.

Orbost harvest and haulage contractor Rob Brunt has 17 workers unable to cut saw and pulp logs and millions of dollars of machinery sitting idle. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

He said Labor had failed to back regional Victorian workers, by refusing to close legal loopholes that allowed environment groups to take legal action, locking up forests.

Mr Brunt said his 17 workers were “at the lowest they’ve ever been”, with no work.

Resentment at being forgotten by Labor led to it losing ground across rural and regional Victoria on Saturday.

In Morwell the Premier campaigned heavily on his promise to re-establish the State Electricity Commission, committing $20m to set up its head office in the electorate.

But Labor’s primary vote fell back from the 34 per cent it gained in 2018 to just 31 per cent on Saturday, with even greater swings in other regional seats.

Mr Andrews has promised to spend $1 billion of taxpayers’ funds to establish the SEC as a renewable energy powerhouse, creating 59,000 jobs.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has promises to revive the SEC during a visit to Yallourn this month.

Victoria University Energy Policy Centre director Bruce Mountain said he could not validate the Premier’s claim of creating 59,000 jobs, but he did say it would deliver “one of biggest one-off investments regional Victoria had ever seen”.

Professor Mountain said taxpayers’ $1 billion would deliver another $1 billion in equity from the corporate sector, who would then borrow four to five times that amount to invest up to $10 billion in renewables, from wind and solar to batteries.

“There’s undoubtedly going to be a massive movement of money from investors into country areas, counting in the tens of billions of dollars,” Prof Mountain said.

Such an investment comes after what many regional Victorians feel are years of neglect.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said regional Victoria had been “crying out for the Premier and Labor to acknowledge the inequity they have faced”, from poorer health outcomes to higher road fatalities.

Municipal Association of Victoria president David Clark said it was clear regional and rural communities needed more funding, with the $165 million Labor promised for repairs to flood damaged roads about a third of what was needed over just the next 12 months.