Labor pushes City Partnerships

LABOR would broaden the scope of the City Deal initiative if it won power at the next federal election, according to Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese.

Mr Albanese raised the concept of City Partnerships when campaigning in Geelong during the 2018 federal election.

At the time, he described a City Partnership as “bottom-up, one which genuinely partners with local government and with state government and with the community to meet their needs as they see it”.

He returned to the subject during a visit to Geelong and the Surf Coast on Thursday last week alongside Corangamite Labor federal member Libby Coker.

“The Geelong City Deal was in the pipeline for a long period of time and they’ve (the Coalition) also been very narrow in the way they deal with City Deals,” Mr Albanese said.

“We actually want a broader definition such as the way they’ve operated successfully in the UK. And it’s not just Geelong that’s been slow.

“Essentially, when (Malcolm) Turnbull was the prime minister, he was genuinely interested in cities policy. Credit where credit’s due. We had some differences with the specific approach, but he appointed, for example, a cities minister. We had a shadow cities minister well before then.

“But when the change of prime ministership happened, all the momentum went from the City Deal process.”

The $382 million Geelong City Deal between the federal, Victorian and local governments includes more than a dozen commitments, with about 30 separate elements to be completed.

Ms Coker said there also needed to be more action on improving rail links between Geelong and Melbourne.

“We need to look to the future, we need to have faster rail and we need to have a more reliable rail service and I’m going to work on that, because we have to look at regions and support them with that infrastructure.

“We’re growing rapidly – Armstrong Creek, Ocean Grove.”