Victorian election 2022: What does regional Victoria want from Spring Street?

A year out from the state election, what does regional Victoria need to thrive in the 2020s? Leading rural voices have their say.

Melbourne has pumped out many soap operas over the decades that have gripped television audiences.

Barry Crocker once crooned that everyone has good Neighbours from Vermont South and Grace and Dave relived the war in Camberwell for longer than WWII’s actual duration in The Sullivans.

But last week, in the surrounds of the Victorian Parliament’s caucus room, the Garden State’s most unlikely television series came to a subdued yet celebratory end.

Premier Daniel Andrews was hosting the final episode of his Covid updates — a televisual grind that nonetheless attracted audiences in their hundreds of thousands.

Victoria was on the cusp of the 90 per cent vaccination rate.

Pubs and restaurants could return to full capacity. Dance floors were now free for the fleet footed.

But the television audience always demands more and something blissfully different.

The camera lens shifts its focus to the 2022 state election campaign.

“Our agenda is to deliver the things we’d say we would do,” Mr Andrews told The Weekly Times. “I was up in Bendigo the other day, the GovHub (government building) was coming out of the ground, there are cranes in the sky in Bendigo again.

“I was in Ballarat recently seeing a whole lot of schools that have been opened. Huge construction agenda there.

“Normally, I’d give you an example in Geelong and the (Latrobe) Valley and a whole lot of smaller communities but we haven’t been getting out as much as we’d like to because of Covid rules.”

That’s set to change.

Like those impeded pub patrons and restrained revellers, Mr Andrews and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy will return to the hustings for a year-long electoral odyssey.

“We are heavily focused on rebuilding our state, recovering our economy and getting our private sector back up and running – generating jobs not just in Melbourne but the whole state,” Mr Guy told The Weekly Times.

“So that means getting government out of our lives as much as we can, rather than as the current government is obsessed with doing, giving us new rules, new regulations, more taxes and frankly, more lockdowns as 2022 comes.

“Our agenda for regional Victoria will be about growing the economy, creating jobs and decentralising our economy.”

Like television producers wanting to keep their audiences engaged, the Premier and Opposition Leader are leaving the specifics of their election agenda to next year.

But key regional leaders are setting out their stalls 12 months before Victorians head to the polls.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano wants to see the Victorian agriculture minister’s role incorporate food security, an issue that has become more pronounced in public discourse since the start of the pandemic.

“Not only should the agriculture minister also cover food security, we’d like to see that position elevated to cabinet. We’re looking for a food security plan for Victoria that should feed into a national plan,” she said.

Away from the pastures, the roads that freight produce from paddock to port or processor need greater government attention, Ms Germano says.

“Whenever I drive on the Princes Highway, or along other main roads in regional Victoria, these bits where they drop the speed limit down to 80km/h, it makes me so angry,” the VFF president said.

“There has to be some other strategies in regards to how you increase road safety rather than just dropping the limit. The road even between my farm and the highway has been reduced to 80 as well – there's no money being spent except to put in a few signs.”

The RACV recently released the findings of its My Country Road survey.

More than 4000 respondents outlined their concerns about regional thoroughfares with the Princes Highway from Stratford to Bairnsdale receiving the dubious distinction of Victoria’s road in most need of attention.

Deans Marsh-Lorne Rd and the Warburton Hwy at Woori Yallock in the Yarra Ranges took out the silver and bronze in the dodgy road race.

“Since the survey was released, we have continued to provide this information directly to the state government, and we hope it will be considered as part of the election campaign and funding priorities,” RACV policy chief Elvira Lazar said.

Regional Cities Victoria is ahead of many advocacy groups, releasing a detailed plan a year out from the 2022 Spring St decider.

The network of regional centres wants $800 million over four years in the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund, as well as $40 million over four years for the Regional Events Fund and $10 million to provide a Regional Transport Plan.

RCV chairwoman Kim O’Keefe has witnessed extraordinary change as the head of Shepparton’s council in the past few years and she anticipates the pandemic population push from Melbourne to regional centres to continue.

“We are seeing a flood of people coming into our regions and with that comes a change in our communities,” the Shepparton mayor said.

“The $800 million over four years will address those social and economic changes with infrastructure that’s needed to cope with increased demand.

“The other mayors I’ve spoken to from our other 10 regional cities are all experiencing the same things we’re experiencing in Greater Shepparton — housing shortages, the challenges of people wanting to work more from home. We’re seeing houses selling in days, rather than weeks or months. The change post-Covid is massive.”

Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra expects the 2022 government budget, and opposition response, to provide a clearer picture of where the two key players want to take the state’s economy in the coming four years.

“While the Victorian Chamber continues to work on our budget submission, it will be centred around the three pillars of enabling, growing and making it easier to do business,” he said.

“We hope the budget addresses ongoing issues skills and labour shortage issues; digital and transport connectivity; opportunities to change stamp duty to a more efficient and equitable property tax; and harnesses innovation and manufacturing opportunities.”