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LV Misses Out On Sustainable Region FundsThe Latrobe Valley receives only one-eighth of the funds allocated to Gippsland By Jo McMillan - 18th October 2002 - Back to News The Latrobe Valley has received only one-eighth of the funds allocated to Gippsland under the Sustainable Regions Programme, despite it making up one-third of the Gippsland population and having one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
Of the $4 million allocated to Gippsland in the first year of the programme, the Latrobe Valley has received a paltry $500 000 in targeted funding.
According to Federal Member for McMillan Christian Zahra, despite the Latrobe Valley having been identified time and time again as an area of very high need, the Government has chosen to direct the lion’s share of the funding to other parts of Gippsland.
"What’s happened here is exactly what I warned would happen when this programme was announced last year. The Latrobe Valley has substantially missed out," Mr Zahra said.
"This so-called Sustainable Regions package, which was touted by John Anderson as a ‘tailored’ approach to help resurrect economically crippled regions, is an absolute failure for the Latrobe Valley."
"This Government refuses to acknowledge the fact that the Latrobe Valley is the most disadvantaged area in Gippsland, particularly in terms of unemployment, which is still in double figures here."
Mr Zahra said that the Victorian Government had recognised the unique situation being faced by the Latrobe Valley and had committed around $105 million of Government funds to try and address the problems being experienced in our region.
"Steve Bracks can see that the Latrobe Valley desperately needs assistance to bring it back up to a level that will allow it to compete fairly with other regional areas and he has done something about it," Mr Zahra said.
"But John Howard and John Anderson have thumbed their noses at us again."
"Before the Federal election last year they tried to con us into believing that the Sustainable Regions Gippsland package would actually have some impact on the problems being experienced in the Latrobe Valley."
"How can it when only one-eighth of the money has been given to projects here?"
"After twelve months we have the evidence of their failure. The Latrobe Valley has been substantially ignored, with the bulk of the funding going to other areas of Gippsland."
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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