THE Victorian Government says it’s “delivering for all Victorians” in the 2023-24 State Budget, with extra cash for flood recovery, cheaper regional public transport fares and upgrading schools and hospitals.
The budget includes an extra $677 million for ongoing flood recovery, on top of $1.8 billion promised last year.
That includes $45.9 million for immediate-response costs incurred by emergency services organisations and $7.1 million to support councils to make impact assessments.
The government has also earmarked $234 million of additional flood recovery funding for programs anticipated to be partly funded by the Commonwealth.
Details about Commonwealth Games project funding were missing, but the $2.6 billion commitment outlined in last year’s budget remained.
The budget also included $601 million to build 23 VLocity trains, and $219 million for additional V/Line services, including extra weekend services on major regional lines.
Minister for Agriculture Gayle Tierney said: “We’re backing our world-class agriculture industry and the Victorians who rely on it, helping farmers access new markets at home and overseas and future-proofing the sector against pests and diseases.”
The budget includes $17.5 million in skills training and equipment to prepare for a rapid response to any emergency animal disease detection, $3 million for farm safety programs, $10 million for the Distillery Door program, $5 million for the Wine to the World program and $5 million in hospitality scholarships.
Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said regional Victoria contributed almost 15 per cent to the state’s economy and was the home of about a quarter of all Victorians, but had been “left reeling” with only 5 per cent investment in the budget.
“A $1.8 billion, 10-year road maintenance program isn’t long-term funding certainty, it is playing make-believe,” she said.
“It does nothing to give road asset managers the certainty needed to plan works and line up contractors to fix our roads now.
“Failure to fix the state’s rotten roads will just mean more pain for farmers, supply chains and regional Victorians.”
Ms Germano said important government responsibilities like protecting agriculture from biosecurity threats would be put at risk by reduced funding to the agriculture department.
“Despite some short-term investment for biosecurity funding, the large reduction to the agriculture portfolio’s budget will lump added strain on the biosecurity system.”
