TWENTY-five per cent of Victorians live in rural and regional areas, it therefore does not seem fair that they only get two per cent of the State Budget investment in infrastructure.

So said Regional Development shadow minister, Peter Walsh this week as he penned a letter to the media decrying the lack of fair distribution.

Mr Walsh said he put questions to premier, Jacinta Allan in State Parliament last week on the alarming gulf in funding.

“When spruiking the budget, the premier said, ‘Many regional families are doing it tough right now’,” he said.

“How is spending a mere two per cent on new infrastructure services helping regional families, who, by the Premier’s own admission, are doing it tough?”

Mr Walsh criticised the Victorian Government for its lack of planning for regional development.

He said regional Victoria was being shortchanged, with state infrastructure funds predominantly directed towards metropolitan Melbourne, while health services in regional areas faced cuts and roads remained unsafe.

However, Grampians Tourism chief executive Mark Sleeman said that the regional tourism industry was not impacted negatively by the State Budget and that things had been “travelling really well” post COVID.

“While there are challenges, I know that our region is doing well from key data,” he said.

“We’re continuing to promote our region and focus on key market opportunities ensuring that every market is a winner.

“There is still a large portion of Melbourne people that haven’t spent one night in the regions so that is a key market opportunity.

“The State Government has actually just awarded two streams of funding to Grampians Tourism of up to $500,000 as part of a $3 million Visitor Servicing Fund.”

The first grant of up to $50,000 was allocated to successful Regional Tourism Boards and local councils to create and update visitor servicing strategies.

A second grant of up to $625,000 was provided to successful Regional Tourism Boards, local councils, and other tourism organisations to support the delivery of major visitor servicing projects including improved booking and reservation platforms, online itinerary builders, digital visitor kiosks and enhanced wayfinding and storytelling at key visitation sites.

“We are incredibly grateful to be receiving the funding,” Mr Sleeman said.

“This will be heavily influential in encouraging greater visits and longer stays to more diverse areas in the region, and overall increase visitor spending.

“We believe these updates will help our local communities thrive, and we look forward to working with our local councils, businesses, and communities across the Grampians and Wimmera Mallee to implement these exciting upgrades.”

Meanwhile, despite the announcement of increased road funding, how that will be allocated remains unclear.

Horsham-based business, Inroads Pty Ltd, has been providing specialist road surfacing services to both the local and state road networks throughout the southern, western and northern regions of Victoria for the past 40 years.

Managing director, Justin Bartlett said that funding continued to be a challenge to the road surfacing industry and described the network of roads in the south west as being in the worst-ever condition.

“Yes, it’s an increase in funding (State Budget 2024), but an increase on nothing is still nothing,” he said.

“And we still haven’t been told how that funding will be allocated.

“At the moment, funding is being used to fix potholes but that means that road resurfacing activities have ground to a halt.

“Road surfacing is a seasonal based activity, and the bulk of road surfacing activities are conducted between September and May so the season has just finished.

“However, somewhere between 11 and 15 million square meters of road paving that needs to occur every season has been slashed down to zero.

“Last year was the first year we didn’t (do) any resurfacing - we had to branch out and do work in South Australia and New South Wales to keep the doors open.

“And if we get a wet winter this year, you’re going to see those road surfaces and potholes deteriorate again.

“Fixing the potholes is only a bandaid fix.”

Lowan MP, Emma Kealy said overall road maintenance funding in the State Budget 2024-25 was 16 per cent less than five years ago.

She said the State’s daily interest bill alone of $15 million – “could fund 15 kilometres of road upgrades every single day”.

As if to add salt to the regional wound, last week the Victorian Government said its ‘Big Build’ was “heating up again this winter with a firm focus on delivering new metropolitan stations, removal of level crossings and progressing upgrades to keep Victorians moving”.

Further, Mr Walsh lamented on Monday that it had been revealed that the road and rail projects across the state had blown out by a staggering $12.7 billion since December.

“To drill deeper, the ballooning costs are costing Victorians an extra $83.6 million a day,” he said.

“Regional roads are crumbling and in a state of disrepair, yet big city projects like the North East Link continue to dish up dastardly numbers of excessive waste.

“The $12.7 billion in blowouts in the past six months is enough to fix half of the pothole-riddled regional road network.”