By Liam Wood, Mildura Mayor
Given the recent publicity around our endorsement of priority advocacy projects ahead of the upcoming Victorian election, I thought it timely to explain and highlight the importance of council’s role to advocate on behalf of our community.
It’s a key role for any local government, not just here in Mildura.
You might hear some detractors saying Victorian councils should stick to “roads, rates and rubbish”.
It can be frustrating to hear this rhetoric, especially when you consider councils are very often instructed to implement a piece of legislation or work on an issue by a higher level of government.
No local government – whether it’s geographically large isolated regional centres like ourselves, or metropolitan Melbourne councils – has the capacity to deliver everything for their community.
Councils can only raise so much money for major projects or initiatives on their own before it starts negatively impacting on ratepayers.
And it’s not just major projects. It could be working to secure funding for upgrades to state or national roads that many of us use every day, or new community or medical services our community desperately needs.
There are also government policies and rules our region needs to work within that can only be changed by government.
The current Victorian rating system, which significantly disadvantages regional communities, is a great example.
Importantly, the bulk of our advocacy work is shaped by what you, our community, have told us through our Community Vision and Council Plan and various consultations each year.
To attract funding, or bring about change in government policy, we need to stand up and make our voice heard on behalf of, and for the benefit of, our community.
We have a dedicated grants officer whose sole job is to seek out grant and funding opportunities for our community, which has proven very effective.
For the first time, we’re now taking advantage of a similar model to advocate for our region – the Murray River Group of Councils (MRGC) has employed a dedicated advocacy team to go into bat for the regions, including ours.
This is why it’s so important to continue our close association with groups like the MRGC and Regional Cities Victoria, working together on issues common to our councils at both state and federal level.
Now that our key priorities have been defined, we need to keep beating the drum – continually repeating our message to all forms of government and any representative who will listen.
Clear, direct and repeated messaging is at the forefront of our advocacy.
And while state or federal elections are great times to advocate, it’s something we do daily, continually looking for opportunities to put our case.
Governments will always listen to good advocacy from councils and the communities they represent, and we’re confident we’re definitely working in the right direction in this regard – strategic in nature and loud in voice, which is something I’ll always be proud of from our community in Victoria’s north-west.
