Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, has blasted One Gippsland for “welcoming” a State Budget that delivered none of the organisation’s key wish list priorities, cut roads maintenance, agriculture and regional development funding and announced the decimation of the timber industry that employs thousands in the region.

“The One Gippsland media release confirmed my suspicions that this entity is nonsense, and a long way from the ‘peak advocacy body for the Gippsland region’ that it claims to be,” said Mr Bull.

“They prepared a wish list of projects, to my eye had none funded, and in addition to being ignored, the government cut funding streams important to the regions and announced that one of our key industries is being destroyed with a paltry compensation package, with no forewarning to the impacted families, or consultation – and they welcomed it!

“It is a group that appears to come together for opportunistic benefit and have a brain dump of isolated local projects with a ‘we will support yours if you support ours mantra’ rather than develop a coherent regional strategy.

“The parlous state of our roads is among the biggest issues in our region and when it needed a massive boost to funding, the roads maintenance funding was cut 25% this year and is lower than 2014/15.

“The agriculture Budget was slashed again and is now 24% lower than it was in 2020, Regional Development funding was cut again and is now 80% down on what it was three years ago, rendering it almost non-existent.

“The decimation of Regional Development Victoria should be something our ‘peak advocacy group’ is standing up and fighting for, not turning a blind eye to and welcoming it,” said Mr Bull.

“All these negatives for our area, and there are plenty more, are ignored and instead One Gippsland plucks out examples of some state-wide policies not specific to our region in its support of the State Budget. It reads more like a Labor Government media release than that of a regional advocacy group.

“This entity is predominantly made up of the six Gippsland councils and they seem to have a policy of never offering any real criticism. If you claim to be an advocacy body you have to agitate when needed, or you are simply not an advocacy group,” said Mr Bull.

“And as for their current wish list, they have the duplication of the Mitchell River bridge as the highest priority for East Gippsland. To have this as a higher priority than the badly needed new Bairnsdale Hospital is just madness.

“One Gippsland has no representation from a number of our major industries and is silent when one is crushed.

“I’d be more than happy for my two councils – East Gippsland and Wellington - to leave this organisation as it clearly does not represent our best interests in eastern Victoria and is not what it claims to be.”

Wednesday, 24 May 2023