Geelong’s City Deal could be done by September

A CITY Deal for Geelong may be as soon as four months away, but Labor has claimed the Coalition is playing politics with the timing.

The Labor state and Coalition federal governments signed a memorandum of understanding on the initiative between the three tiers of government in Geelong in January, but despite much speculation in recent months, a definite date on when the final deal will be done has not been released.

However, at Senate Estimates last week, Claire Howlett from the cities division of the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities said Geelong’s City Deal “would be finalised this calendar year”.

“We expect it will be done around September or October this year.”

Shadow Minister for Cities Anthony Albanese said some cities in line for City Deals were being prioritised ahead of others, adding that the department was unable to confirm a date for Darwin, Hobart and Perth but was explicit that Geelong would receive its deal in September or October.

“Coincidentally, this is just ahead of the Victorian state election in November.

“This follows a string of other remarkable coincidences, including the announcement of a Hobart City Deal in the lead up to the Tasmanian state election.”

The Victorian Labor government committed $153 million towards Geelong’s City Deal in its recent state budget, but this figure was not explicitly matched in the following week’s federal budget.

At the time, Corangamite Liberal federal member Sarah Henderson defended the lack of dedicated funding, saying there would be money for the City Deal from the unallocated portion of the budget, and that state  Labor was playing “smoke and mirrors” on the issue.