By Ewen McRae
Moorabool council is being short-changed by a state government fund, according to a new report.
The report from the Auditor General into Regional Development Victoria (RDV) shows Moorabool, along with a number of other shires, is receiving far less compared to regional centres such as Ballarat and Geelong.
The report shows Moorabool received the lowest amount of grants from RDV on both a per capita basis and total grants basis, despite having the fifth highest growth of the councils included.
Moorabool received just $15 per person in total grants from RDV’s Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund since 2007-08, when the fund was established, while nearby Ballarat received $820 per person from the same fund.
Moorabool mayor Paul Tatchell said all his council was seeking was a fair share.
“At the end of the day, the figures don’t lie and its pretty disappointing,” Cr Tatchell said.
“We’re bookended by two or three very large economies and yet we probably have more problems and are still being ignored.
“I think it’s about time these city-centric governments started to recognise that country shires and country people deserve better.
“I’m critical of the process and I’m disappointed for the people. We’re going to put out a budget this year where 86.7 cents in the rate dollar is going to capital works.
“I’d nearly guarantee that Moorabool is the highest in the state for that, yet we have the lowest grant funding and the highest growth.”
Cr Tatchell said that unless governments at all levels started to invest in high growth areas such as Moorabool, the possibility of amalgamating shires could increase.
“If we don’t get a handle on it, we’ll certainly be talking to and trying to get the government to engage on ‘do you want us to amalgamate?’ Because if that is what they want let’s plan for it,” he said. “You can’t have high growth and no investment, especially in an area like
ours.
“We’re on 1700 square kilometres, 64 towns, and we’re on less than 10 per cent of the revenue of our bookended shires. That’s not a difficult equation.
“I just want people to be fair dinkum.
“What saddens me as a mayor is that despite the fact we’ve kept good books, we’ve kept our nose clean, we’ve passed the test and are not a high-risk council because we manage our finances – yet depreciation will kill us anyway because of the lack of investment.
“I’m just fighting for what’s fair.”
