The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, says agriculture – regional Victoria’s economic powerhouse – has been betrayed by the Allan Labor government budget.
Mr Walsh says Jacinta Allan has slashed agriculture spending; it is now down a whopping 30 per cent on funding just two years ago.
He says this budget’s $496.6 million for agriculture does not even compare with the $687.3 million allocated in 2022-23 – “and that was way too little even then”.
“Agriculture is the lifeblood of so much of regional and rural Victoria – government investment in this sector must be rising, not shrinking,” Mr Walsh says.
“Agriculture doesn’t just feed Victoria, it keeps regional Victoria afloat, it supports the many small and large towns scattered across the state, it drives innovation in food and fibre production, and it helps secure the long-term future of the state,” he says.
“And the message from Spring St is that it is more important Melbourne commuters can cut 10- or 15-minutes driving time on their way to work – at a cost of billions and billions of dollars.
“The logic is irrefutable – Victoria’s farmers supply all Victorians with the finest, freshest, and safest food in the world and without them we will be forced to rely on questionably unreliable imports.
“This is the message Ms Allan is ending rural and regional Victoria – a hole in the ground in Melbourne is worth much more than the people on the frontline feeding us all.”
At the same time, Mr Walsh says the 2024 Allan budget has also condemned regional Victorian to more “road roulette” with even more massive spending cuts.
He says 16 per cent “has been ripped out of an already inadequate road maintenance fund” ensuring our roads will continue to not just get worse but get more dangerous.
He says regional Victoria is littered with black spots in urgent need of safety upgrades as well as repairs “and now that just isn’t going to happen”.
“Our regional road network is crumbling in front of our eyes – across northern Victoria that collapse has been accelerated by two, in some places three, massive flood events in the past decade,” Mr Walsh says.
“A network that is also crucial to our agricultural industries, for moving farm machinery and equipment and for getting harvests to silos, trains and ports,” he says.
“At the same time the real cost of those urgent road repairs has soared, meaning regional Victorians will be forced to continue to dodge potholes, and that sort of evasive and unsafe driving dramatically increases the risk level on our roads.
“The Liberals and Nationals pledged to spend $1 billion a year on road maintenance, and the Allan Labor Government, which is driving us to bankruptcy, not safer travel, is offering to spend less than $700 million as the crisis worsens.
“And that’s assuming it actually delivers the money – an Allan Labor government promise is one thing; the stark reality is all-too-often another.”
