The Member for Western Victoria, Gayle Tierney MP said that Western Victorian rural and regional towns and cities are big winners in the Brumby Government’s announcement of the new $631 million blueprint by the Victorian Government.
The Ready for Tomorrow: A Blueprint for Regional and Rural Victoria delivers a new vision, backed by record funding, to secure the future prosperity of regional and rural Victoria. The blueprint will drive economic growth in regional and rural Victoria by attracting jobs and population growth, major new investment and more opportunities for young people to keep them living and working locally.
Ms Tierney said that under Ready for Tomorrow, the Victorian Government would deliver action and investment to create new opportunities and a prosperous future for families in Victoria’s regions.
“Our Government is determined to continuing its support of Western Victorian families living and working in regional and rural Victoria,” Ms Tierney said.
Ms Tierney said Ready for Tomorrow built on the $11.7 billion invested over the past decade to transform regional Victoria into the best place to live, work, invest and raise a family.
“We spent our first 10 years in government putting the heart back into regional and rural Victoria and we want to work in partnership with rural and regional communities such as Western Victoria to build a prosperous future for families,” she said.
“In the past decade, our partnership with regional and rural Victoria has produced remarkable results: more than 120,000 new jobs created, population growth to 1.45 million and our regions are contributing $62.6 billion towards the state’s economy, up a massive 30 per cent since 1999.
“This blueprint brings together the work of regional councils, business and community groups from across Victoria who worked in partnership with us to shape a vision for their futures.”
Ms Tierney said Ready for Tomorrow: A Blueprint for Regional and Rural Victoria also signalled a new way forward in regional development policy with local communities, council and industry to get more opportunities for greater ownership over planning for the future in their own regions.
“There is no doubt that regional and rural Victoria is thriving but we must work hard to maintain and build on its strengths to lock-in a bright, prosperous future,” Ms Tierney said.
“We want to protect the regional way of life while ensuring that the economic and social benefits of population growth flow to regions and towns. Our plan is to create more jobs close to where regional Victorians live and we want regional Victoria to offer a range of opportunities for young people to build their skills and join the workforce.
“There are more jobs, more people, a significantly stronger economy and many more opportunities in regional Victoria than 10 years ago. This blueprint will build on that growth to drive our regions forward for generations to come.”
“I look forward to and shall continue to work with Western Victorian families to build a prosperous future”.
