A Shorten Labor Government will provide certainty for the Ballarat community by delivering community and infrastructure projects recently announced as part of the Building Better Regions program.
Catherine King, Federal Member for Ballarat said that if Labor is successful at the forthcoming Federal election, it will not delay important investment in local communities by revisiting investment decisions that have already been made.
This means that three projects across the Ballarat electorate will proceed, improving community amenity and providing much needed jobs and economic activity.
These projects are:
·$40,000 for the Central Highlands Tourist Railway to see the provision of run around facilities at both Daylesford and Bullarto railway stations
·$20,000 for the Golden City Paddle Steamer for the ‘Best 'O' Lake Photo Exhibition’
·$20,000 for the Ballarat International Foto Biennale for the ‘Hello Wendouree, Hello Australia’ community engagement photographic event,
Labor has previously supported programs to fund community infrastructure projects in regional Australia through a number of programs including the Regional Development Australia fund and the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program.
With nearly $1 billion lost to local councils through the indexation freeze of Financial Assistance Grants from 2014-2017, Labor knows that regional councils are still playing catch up with a backlog of projects that were put on hold during these years.
“It’s important that we move quickly to deliver projects as quickly as possible, rather than starting the whole process from scratch”, Ms King said
“We need to provide certainty to the recipients of these grants”
“These projects will make a real difference to communities across Ballarat”.
“These projects increase our tourist offering, create jobs, and make our communities an even more vibrant and liveable space”.
“I am proud to confirm that a Shorten Labor Government will fund these projects that will make our regional communities even stronger”.
