Local politicians call on government to fund local programs

In making a case for the State Government to fully fund some of the major infrastructure programs planned for Shepparton, both the Liberal Member for Northern Victoria, Wendy Lovell and Independent Member for Shepparton District, Suzanna Sheed are in agreement. Both say that the government is falling behind in its budgeting priorities.

A case in point is the construction of the $120 million Greater Shepparton Secondary College which the State Government has promised will be fully completed and operational by January 2022. In her contribution, Ms Lovell reiterated the need for the $120 million to be delivered in the budget for this timeline to be met and the project not to be a staged build.

Suzanna Sheed has called on the Victorian Government and Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Jacinta Allan to finalise the business case for the long-awaited Shepparton Bypass Stage One.

Ms Sheed said, “For a region that has one of the highest instances of freight use in the state the lack of a bypass is doing economic damage to my electorate. In the last Federal Government budget a commitment of over $200 million was made to completing the project, an amount that is presumably still available if the Victorian Government would commit to the project.”

At the same time, Ms Lovell called on the government to also follow through on a number of commitments including, Stage Two of GV Health and the Shepparton Rail Corridor as well as funding the redevelopment of the Shepparton Sports & Events Centre.

In each case, funding of these programs would add considerably to the economy of the region with many work opportunities included.