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Parties Duel for Rural Victoria

The contest for rural seats a central focus for the political parties

By Abby Dinham - 17th October 2002 - Back to News

The Liberal Party has unveiled its newest weapon in the war for country votes, the ‘Rural and Regional Team’ (RRT).

Under instruction the new Victorian leader, Robert Doyle, the Liberal Party have charged the RRT with; "developing and promoting liberal party policies in country Victoria, and holding the Government accountable for its failures in rural Victoria".

Amid speculation of a December election, the Liberal Party are vying for country voters support; an attempt described by Victorian National Party leader Peter Ryan as, "too little too late".

"One of the Liberal parties problems is that their leadership is based entirely in Melbourne… country representation is absolutely miniscule", said Mr Ryan.

He suspects the rural population will be cynical of the Liberal Party’s recent attention, and most likely unwilling to accommodate a party that is "[sic] bidding for last minute votes".

Gippsland Province MP, Philip Davis, has been assigned the ‘Rural Victoria’ portfolio; he describes the metropolitan-stereotype of the Victorian Liberal Party as, "a long way from reality".

"The current team of Liberal MP’s, pound for pound, is equal to or better than an team of rural representatives in any political party in Australia", responds Mr Davis.

Robert Doyle has described the Labour Party’s performance in government as a ‘failure’. Mr Davis said, "[rural communities are] extremely disappointed that most of their expectations raised [by the 1999 Labour campaign] have been unfulfilled".

However, Labour MLP for Morwell Keith Hamilton said; "evidence is clear that there has been more capital expenditure in rural Victoria over the last three years [of Labour leadership], than there was in the seven years total of the Kennett Government".

He describes the new Liberal policy focus as, "re-emphasising the fact that they [the Liberal and National Parties] forgot about rural Victoria…for the seven years they were in government".

The contest for rural seats is likely to remain a central focus for the political parties; as the 1999 Victorian electoral results demonstrated, a shift in the country electorate could mean the difference between Government and Opposition.

More information: http://www.vic.liberal.org.au/mediacentre/State%20Issues/27-8-2002-ruralteam.htm

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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