MILDURA Rural City Council is seeking at least $7.2 million from whoever wins government at next month’s Federal election.
Last month councillors agreed upon a list of six priority projects which they would be advocating for to transform the region.
The biggest individual ask was for $5 million to develop Chaffey Park Reserve at Merbein, install a starting gate and lighting at the Mildura BMX Club track, and renew the existing hockey pitch at Old Aerodrome Ovals to meet current Federation of International Hockey standards.
Council was also seeking $1.8 million for stage three of the Mildura Riverfront Development, which primarily focused on the creation of a new adventure playground at Jaycee Park.
If funded, council expected both projects to be delivered in full within two years.
MRCC had also sought $400,000 for two separate business cases.
One business case was to examine the viability of rail freight intermodals at locations including Merbein, Red Cliffs, Thurla and Ouyen, to incentivise freight operators to shift from road to rail.
The other was to examine the benefits, costs and risks of creating a second bridge over the Murray River at Monak, to ease traffic congestion and ensure the efficient movement of freight.
Another request was to create a fairer funding model for Local Government to reduce its reliance on rate payers.
Council was pushing for fairer rating systems and sustainable service delivery models, and suggested increasing financial assistance grants could commence immediately.
The final part of council’s advocacy was based on demonstrating that its asset renewal gap could grow to almost $180 million over the next decade.
Council currently manages an asset base in excess of $1.1 billion, based on the cost of replacement.
MRCC had urged State and Federal governments to consider increasing funding for asset renewal, to support ageing infrastructure.
Mayor Cr Helen Healy said the Federal Election period was a powerful opportunity to make sure Australia’s next political leaders were aware of critical projects that needed funding in Sunraysia.
“The six projects council has prioritised are the result of an exhaustive amount of background work and will be transformative for our region across a raft of areas, including community wellbeing, financial sustainability and infrastructure development,” she said.
“They strike to the very core of our region’s future growth and prosperity, and now, in the midst of the Federal Election period, is a critical time to push these projects forward.
“We’re already well advanced in our advocacy work in terms of pushing these projects at every opportunity, including as recently as this week when, along with councillor for economic development Rebecca Crossling, I met with the Federal National Party Leader David Littleproud and Member for Mallee Anne Webster.
“Led by myself, my fellow councillors and our chief executive officer Martin Hawson, we’ll continue to embrace every opportunity, at a national level during this campaign, to push these six projects and their benefits.
“Who knows, any one of the Federal Election candidates we make an impression on could well be the next Australian Prime Minister or critical Federal Government Minister.”
