By Kate Taylor<\/p>\n
An Auditor General\u2019s report has confirmed what Moorabool Shire Council has been saying for years \u2013 that the state government does not give it enough money, and each person is only worth the price of a \u2018smashed avo\u2019 focaccia and a coffee
\n\u2018Outcomes of Investing in Regional Victoria\u2019 was an audit report tabled in parliament on 2nd May 2019, which looked at whether the state government-run Regional Development Victoria\u2019s grants and funding had actually ended up benefitting regional Victoria or not.
\nThe report found that on a per-head basis Moorabool residents received $15 from the state government in RDV funding, compared to nearby Ballarat which received $805 per resident.
\nMoorabool Mayor Paul Tatchell said the figure is even worse than he expected.
\n\u201cI thought it was $80, but it\u2019s $15,\u201d he told the Moorabool News. \u201cI think they thought they were going to come down here and see Moorabool as wasting money, not doing the right thing when actually there\u2019s just not enough funding.
\n\u201cThe irony is that it\u2019s an Auditor General\u2019s report from the state government – it\u2019s shoved it in their face really, it\u2019s their audit that proved our point, that we\u2019re under-funded.\u201d
\nIt means that the cost of infrastructure has largely fallen on council to pay.
\n\u201cTo add insult to injury, for every rate dollar we\u2019re collecting, 82 cents is put back into capital works because of the lack of government funding – which puts us up with the highest infrastructure spending shires in the state with one of the lowest revenues.
\n\u201cThe federal government should be stepping forward too \u2013 but it won\u2019t, even with the election,\u201d Cr Tatchell says.
\n\u201cThe councils that are doing the right thing in the bush are getting shafted by a thing called \u2018safe-seat-itis\u2019.\u201d
\nNow, with the Auditor General\u2019s report putting firm numbers to the problem, where does it go from here?
\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t go anywhere. Nothing\u2019s going to change, they don\u2019t care,\u201d Cr Tatchell said.
\n\u201cAnd part of our problem is, we\u2019re 15-years away from getting the economy of scale to have proper investment in terms of infrastructure – because of our enormous growth rate in the peri-urban, we will eventually have enough numbers to get it back on a level keel, but in the meantime, the rate dollar is just going to have to be invested where the state and federal governments aren\u2019t interested. What\u2019s going to happen over the next 15-years? We\u2019ll be that far behind it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Kate Taylor An Auditor General\u2019s report has confirmed what Moorabool Shire Council has been saying for years \u2013 that the state government does not give it enough money, and each person is only worth the price of a \u2018smashed avo\u2019 focaccia and a coffee \u2018Outcomes of Investing in Regional Victoria\u2019 was an audit report […]<\/p>\n