SHEPPARTON SENIORS LEFT BEHIND
RE: Greater Shepparton City Council Draft Budget 2024/25
Council took it upon itself to exit aged services a few years ago, without a Councillor resolution. That was a hugely damaging mistake for our aging population.
The loss of this service is obvious. House maintenance, gutter cleaning, weekly pick-up/drop-off for elderly housebound residents and grocery shopping. The elderly want to remain independent living at home; however, home help has diminished. Too many services have been reduced or removed from the older generation, who no longer have a voice.
This is an area that needs to be reinstated as our elderly residents are being overlooked.
The elderly play a huge role within our communities, not only as ratepayers, but many are also valued volunteers.
This is a massive grey area, and still no mention in the Greater Shepparton City Council 2024/25 Draft Budget!
It appears Greater Shepparton City Council now wipe their hands of Aged Services even although there are long waiting lists for My Age Care and the elderly go without!
What happened to the service previously provided to the elderly here in Shepparton?
JM Reed
Shepparton
REGIONAL VICTORIA SHORTCHANGED
Dear Editor,
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for regional Victorians, along comes another brutal set of numbers.
Revelations this week that road and rail projects across the state have blown out by a staggering $12.7B since December are a sledgehammer blow.
To drill deeper, the ballooning costs are costing Victorians an extra $83.6M a day.
Regional roads are crumbling and in a state of disrepair, yet big city projects like the North East Link continue to dish up dastardly numbers of excessive waste.
The $12.7B in blowouts in the past six months is enough to fix half of the pothole-riddled regional road network.
Yet our roads remain in disarray, with the Allan Labor Government slashing the road maintenance budget by 75 per cent next financial year.
The roads maintenance budget is 16 per cent lower than it was in 2020.
As the blowouts continue, expect more popped tyres and damaged rims as the neglect hits home.
In the recent State Budget, Labor allocated just $2B to regional Victorians of a $98B total spend on infrastructure and services.
You don’t need to be a mathematician to work out that’s only about two per cent of the total spend. Why the staggering gulf, given regional Victoria provides 25 per cent of the state’s population?
Labor can’t manage money and regional Victorians are paying the price.
Peter Walsh
Leader of The Nationals
