The Federal Government has provided $17.5 million and Mildura Council $9.5 million but any shortfall means the project will have to be staged.
“The vision for Mildura South is not just about recreational opportunities for our community — as important as that is — it’s also about improving our tourism capacity,” Ms Cupper said.
“Regional towns that have big sporting facilities, they have floods of families — mums, dads, kids — who are spending money at cafes, on accommodation, who are stopping by the local shops.
“That’s what I’m trying to explain to the government, that this is an example of giving us the baseline infrastructure and you’ll make us more self-sufficient.
“You’ll make us more sustainable as a community, and that’s what you need.
“I want the $8 million we need to have a fully completed precinct, that is really important.”
Sunraysia Daily in December unveiled the long-term vision for a “super suburb” on Sixteenth Street to include a trifecta of hot spots with MSRSP alongside the Mildura South Neighbourhood Activity Centre (NAC) and a new, 400-lot subdivision proposed by developer Larry Dimasi.
NAC would include an expansive retail precinct, residential subdivision, early childhood learning centre and village green.
Strategic planner Peter Douglas spoke of the plans to create a sprawling, “little town” to service 8000 to 10,000 people.
Ms Cupper said the long-term vision for Mildura South made obtaining full funding for MSRSP even more important.
“I hear about council’s vision from Mildura South and I think it’s so exciting,” she said.
“There’s been some criticism about will a supermarket be built or not. Well, that’s kind of beside the point, isn’t it? Why are we talking in the immediate term? In a sense, who cares — there are supermarkets nearby.
“The point is the vision that we can work towards over the next few decades.
“That will happen organically provided we have factored into the future planning spaces for shops, sporting precincts, parks, then it will emerge over time.
“What we will end up having over time is an exceptionally lovely, new part of town which is incredibly well serviced.”
Ms Cupper’s other funding priority for the 2020 budget is $23 million for upgrades to the Robinvale-Sea Lake Road, which she says has suffered a “double whammy” of neglect over the years.
“The stalling of Murray Basin Rail Project has changed the game in a very bad way for the Robinvale-Sea Lake Road,” she said.
“While there may be many other bad roads in the state — I get that — this one has copped a double whammy.
“Not only is it a victim of neglect from successive governments over many, many years but also it’s now going to be carrying at least an additional 10,000 truck movements per harvest as a result of the stalling of that standardisation project.”
Ms Cupper said $23 million was needed to “essentially rebuild” the road, which has a myriad of issues including widespread potholes, dropaways that lead to wheel damage or flick stones into oncoming traffic, lack of width, patches with no shoulders and poor line marking.
“Manangatang and Robinvale residents who use that road all the time do so with an absolute sense of dread every time they drive on it,” Ms Cupper said.
“As I said to the Premier directly, this is a die-in-the-ditch issue to me.
“We need to get that road essentially rebuilt.”
Ms Cupper acknowledged the government’s $2.9 million funding contribution for Robinvale-Sea Lake Road last year but added: “You’re not going to fix (the road’s issues) with just with $2.9 million.”
Ms Cupper flagged education infrastructure funding priorities for Hopetoun P-12 College, Mildura West Primary School, Merbein P-10 College and Wycheproof kindergarten.
Education Minister James Merlino toured Mildura West — one of the largest state primary schools in the region with more than 390 students — in December and said he could “see the potential and needs for the school”.
Ms Cupper said Hopetoun P-12 College desperately needed a new science and home economics building while Merbein P-10 had been overlooked for 10 years for funding needed to refurbish the school’s administration, library, canteen and science facilities.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing,” she said.
Ms Cupper, who sits on the government’s Industrial Hemp Taskforce, said her other major project for 2020 would be continuing to investigate opportunities for growth in the hemp industry in Mildura.
“Mildura is well positioned to be at the forefront (of growth in hemp industries),” she said.
ALI CUPPER on….
MILDURA BASE PUBLIC HOSPITAL
Getting our hospital back in public hands was the beginning of a new era.
There’s a lot of work to be done.
One of the things that was really great was Premier Andrews and Health Minister Jenny Mikakos announcing alongside the return to public management, the $1 million grant for a services review.
What that showed me very clearly was this was not a token move by them … they genuinely want better health outcomes for the Mildura community.
The service review will enable us to really dig deep into the details and local experiences.
That’s what the consultative committee is about … to also mine the information that doctors, medicos, nurses, front-line staff have — to be able to have thorough discussions with our satellite services.
Our hospital in Mildura was always intended to have a strong mentoring relationship, primarily with the Mallee Track and Robinvale, to work out what’s working and what’s not working and to plug those gaps.
It’s about the wellbeing of my community and the health outcomes for my community.
INDEPENDENT INFLUENCE
The argument I made during the campaign and the argument I’ve been making for years is that we need to vote strategically because politics is about influence.
Politics is about the art of the possible and you want to maximise what’s possible at any given moment.
I made the argument during the campaign that when it very much looked like Daniel Andrews was going to win the seat, the last thing we needed was a safe seat, backbench Opposition MP.
And what we’ve seen, I believe — and I have genuine confidence in this — is a massive spike in our influence in Spring Street.
I have direct access to the Premier.
I highly doubt that if anyone else had have been elected they would have had that access.
And that access is incredibly important.
SOCIAL ISSUES
When running for the state election, I thought we were so starved of infrastructure here, we so desperately needed someone who A. had the ability to win an election and B. could have influence with what looked like would be a Labor Government, to catch us up.
If we are going to start getting an influence at a state level, this area needs a leader that can unite everyone, not someone who is going to go too hard on a social issue that is going to be divisive. That is something that I have largely stuck with.
It’s about infrastructure and it’s about negotiating with the government so we can get our fair share of the pie.
But then there’s been a couple of things that have arisen that just required someone in my position to speak up.
And so, while it is still my intention to primarily be an infrastructure MP, when push comes to shove it is incumbent on me to say something.
When someone is going to say heinous things about indigenous people and essentially belittle and humiliate an entire cohort of our population, which is already vulnerable, I’m going to say something about it.
When it is absolutely, overwhelmingly clear that we are in the eye of the climate change storm, and that half the country is on fire, it’s my job to say something about it.
I’m going to leave the social advocacy largely to others except when it is absolutely necessary for me to step into the fray — and on the race issue and the climate change issue I feel it is appropriate that I do.
