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State's hit and miss list on country regionsMP Philip Davis accuses the State Government of publishing grossly misleading information on a new web site listing state projects being undertaken in country regions. By Kevin Balshaw - 1st October 2009 - Back to News The Member for Eastern Victoria, Philip Davis, has accused the State Government of publishing grossly misleading information on a new web site that purports to list state projects being undertaken in country regions.
Mr Davis said the Government’s Working Victoria web site listed 55 projects costing an incredible $9.5 billion dollars that it was supposedly funding in East Gippsland, which the site erroneously described as North Gippsland.
But he said only $38.75 million of state money was being spent on projects that were under way or had been approved within East Gippsland — less than half of one per cent of the amount the Government was claiming.
In the main the projects that fell within the local area involved upgrades to schools in Maffra and the construction of additional classrooms at other schools around the region.
The same was the case, Mr Davis said, under the project list for the area that the web site described as South Gippsland covering the Traralgon area, which in fact was the area extending from Sale to the Bass Coast.
"The site presents not only a case of blatant self-promotion for the Government but is deceptive," he said.
"Projects listed for both incorrectly named Gippsland regions include channel deepening in Port Phillip Bay, the Melbourne-Geelong water pipeline, upgrading City Link and the West Gate Freeway, $609 million worth of new metropolitan trains, works on the rail line along the Hume corridor and the Mildura freight line, realignment of the Western Highway beyond Melton, a bus route from Frankston to Melbourne airport and the Wimmera-Mallee irrigation pipeline.
"Many of these larger projects are Commonwealth-funded, either as part of its normal programs or from its economic stimulus packages for infrastructure. Quite a number, while they may have been approved, have not even been put out to tender as yet.
"As a classic example, the list includes duplication of the Princes Highway from Traralgon to Sale, which will be financed from the Commonwealth’s stimulus program and is a long-term staged project that has been allocated only $17.5 million for preliminary planning over this financial year.
"That the Victorian Government could seriously portray such a listing as Gippsland projects and claim them to be all its own work beggars belief.
"The information on the site also demonstrates the Government has no understanding of the geographic make-up of Victoria’s country regions. It is totally out of touch with the country and is failing to deliver essential community and economic infrastructure to country areas."
Mr Davis said the same applied with two other sites that were part of a network of high-cost Internet developments proclaiming the Government’s dubious record in country areas.
He said the Government had set up a site called Provincial Victoria on which the page relating to employment opportunities in the country merely contained links to private sector job agencies.
A third site, Live in Victoria, provided links to 10 regional migration coordinators who covered all areas of the state except Gippsland.
The web sites:
www.workingvictoria.vic.gov.au
www.provincialvictoria.vic.gov.au
www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: kevin.balshaw@parliament.vic.gov.au
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