A DELEGATION from the Southern Grampians Shire Council (SGSC) travelled to Canberra two weeks ago to visit Parliament House and hold meetings with the new Federal Government, to make representations on behalf of the Shire.

Joining SGSC mayor, Bruach Colliton, were councillors David Robertson and Helen Henry, and chief executive, Tony Doyle.

Cr Colliton said key advocacy priorities included housing, the state of local roads, the Volcanic Trails Masterplan and other projects vital to the sustainability of the Southern Grampians region.

Ministers included deputy prime minister, Richard Marles; Agriculture, fisheries and forestry minister, Murray Watt; regional development, local government and territories minister, Kristy McBain; climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, and other senior officials.

On return, Mr Doyle, Cr Colliton and Cr Robertson sat down with The Spectator to give a debrief on the important trip, which they all appeared to be pleased with.

Mr Doyle said the Shire had carefully planned a much more collaborative manner to the meetings, with one of the first things they did was begin meetings asking questions as to what the new Federal Government had planned for local government authorities (LGA).

The strategy appeared to work.

“Our approach really resonated with them,” Mr Doyle said.

“About three or four minutes into the conversation, one minister – she stopped us and said, ‘So you haven’t walked in here demanding money immediately. You’ve walked in here to understand what the government’s wanting to do and how we could work together’, and she said, ‘That’s fantastic’.”

Mr Doyle said he could understand why other LGAs would be anxious and front up to meetings with their hand out for money – “We need funding for this. We need funding for that.” – but a long-term relationship needed to be based on more.

“I really feel because of (our) approach that we will follow them up, but they’ll also be following us up and getting advice from us into the future,” he said.

Cr Colliton agreed and said both sides wanted to talk about wider issues with visions and solutions geared for regional areas.

“They’re talking about the major problems – housing, jobs,” he said.

“We’re saying, well, we’ve got a housing development ready to go – we just need a little bit of assistance with the infrastructure because we’re not the same as the city, the returns just aren’t there.”

“If they can kick it off with us, we would get two or 300 houses in no time.

“I think that was a bit of a breath of fresh air for them.”

But the mood was a little less sunny when actually getting to the details specific to the Southern Grampians; Cr Robertson referred to a conversation with the deputy prime minister in terms of an apparently fading recognition of the region, especially given its long history of agricultural success – “we were the livestock centre”.

“Richard Marles said, ‘Do you feel neglected out there?’” Cr Robertson said.

“(I said) well, yes we do, to some extent – especially with the State Government, the border finishes at Ballarat, Geelong and Bendigo.”

Cr Robertson said getting the Digital Hub up and running was a big part of reversing the trend as he felt there was a great deal of innovation in agriculture that should to be tapped into – especially with technology coming to the fore in conjunction with the average age of farmers now going down.

“(The age has) been going up for 40 years I’ve been involved, and all of a sudden it’s dropped 10,” he said.

“They’re not out there pushing a drench gun and on the end of a shovel, they’re behind the computers and they’re doing the innovative work.”

Cr Colliton said the Hub was an important part of the discussions with the Federal Government as they see the way it can bring ideas together.

“I think there’s a bit of a culture shift that we’d be looking to help with,” he said.

“There’s a lot of great ideas out there and you’re seeing some farmers take leaps and bounds in terms of what they’re doing with their innovation and productivity.”

Asked by The Spectator if they considered that the concept relied on the openness of locals to share ideas and knowledge and whether people might be reluctant to risk losing intellectual property (IP), Cr Colliton said the experience of other such centres was positive.

“I asked that question to the management at the Canberra Innovation Hub and they said their experience has been totally the opposite,” he said.

“The more it’s gone on, the more open people have become and the more they’re seeing things thrive and take off faster than ever before.

“They would even have some experts around how to handle the IP.”

Mr Doyle said the discussions at the Canberra venue were extremely fruitful and he was hopeful they could get Federal backing to see the project – only in a conceptual design stage for now – become a reality in Hamilton.

“They’re doing some brilliant work around bringing innovators together, creating a collaborative and crowded space to entrepreneurs within their community to meet other people who might be able to support their thinking and support their project,” he said.

“So we left that meeting with some really strong ideas and thinking about how we can establish that Digital Hub.”

Cr Robertson said the need for agriculture to have greater investment in the region with research and development appeared to align with the new government’s values, and he was glad they appeared to be concerned about biosecurity, with subjects such as foot and mouth disease, lumpy skin disease and even the recent varroa mite incursion in NSW affecting honeybees being discussed.

Mr Doyle said discussions on the Volcanic Trails Masterplan – “an incredibly important project” – with the tourism minister, Don Farrell, were also positive.

“With tens of thousands of visitors coming to the Grampians Peaks Trail each year, these volcanic assets that we have, such as Wannon (Falls), Nigretta Falls, Byaduk Caves, really close the gap between the Grampians and the coast and Budj Bim for tourism,” Mr Doyle said.

“The previous government had a program called Building Better Regions, which I think was grants up to $10 million.

“So it really gave councils the opportunity to deliver major projects such as the Volcanic Trail so we want to make sure that was front of mind for the new government – which we’re quite confident will be – but you just needed to get that on the table about the importance of that.”

Cr Henry wasn’t present for this interview, but in a separate emailed statement outlined her experiences in Canberra.

“I (was) really pleased with the Albanese Government’s legal targets on climate change mitigation as these are in line with the Southern Grampians values around taking strong and urgent action on climate change,” she said.

“The meeting with the minister for climate change, Chris Bowen’s office was an opportunity for us to highlight the innovations occurring in our area in agriculture and our future plans for sustainability and carbon reduction.

“We also discussed our CBD redevelopment needs, our Art Gallery plans, our volcanic plains potential, the digital hub plans, localised power for small towns, agriculture, rail freight, roads, the importance of federal grants for rural councils in our formal meetings and additionally found our way to a Labor event to discuss youth, mental health and the natural beauty and strong economic contribution of our region.”

Cr Colliton remarked that Cr Henry had been “in her element” in the national capital and “she was really able to engage” while talking to various ministers.

“They will remember her, I’ve got no doubt about that,” Cr Colliton said.

He said the overall experience of talks with the Federal Government was worthwhile.

“The best thing (that) really came out of it was we’re actually quite aligned,” he said.

“My personal view coming out of it was that it was probably more positive than I expected.”

Mr Doyle echoed the sentiments and said the changed political landscape was a challenge the trip had addressed well.

“We were very lucky to have previously Dan Tehan our local member as a senior member of the cabinet in Australia,” he said.

“We don’t have that anymore. I think that’s a huge loss for us to have that voice in the government.

“So I left these meetings fairly happy that we’re building that voice and feel confident that we’ll be able to have these multiple relationships across the cabinet that are going to serve as well.”