Council furious with State Government after budget release

Baw Baw Shire councillors are “absolutely furious” with the State Government for again refusing to come to the party to provide funding for key infrastructure to cope with rapid population growth, particularly in Warragul and Drouin.

A vocal mayor Danny Goss told The Gazette that the shire had been “neglected, disenfranchised and ignored” after council, elected less than a month ago, took a unanimous stand at a regular briefing meeting last Wednesday.

He said the nine councillors are as one in their anger with a lack of consideration by the Labor State Government in “thrusting growth out of Melbourne onto Baw Baw Shire but not backing it up with infrastructure”.

“This is clearly because the government regards the electorate of Narracan as safe Liberal”.

Cr Goss pointed to the 40 per cent of the electorate that voted Labor at the last election.

“They are missing out, too”.

Major traffic issues in Warragul and Drouin and between the two towns and educational and recreational facilities head council’s needs.

Council had lobbied for $3 million for development of a plan to solve the traffic problems but got nothing, the mayor stated.

While Cr Goss welcomed the budget’s confirmation of $12.6 million for stage two of a major upgrade at Warragul Regional College that was previously announced, he said other schools in the shire were under considerable pressure because of population growth.

“A significant share of growing enrolments at Trafalgar High School are coming from the Latrobe Valley, and numbers of students at Drouin West and South primary schools are growing substantially because of the lack of a second primary school in Drouin”.

But Cr Goss said the Education Department has not been prepared to talk to us (council) about its plans for the next 10 years.

Early education and recreation facilities were also lagging behind need, he said, with government assistance only coming after competitive application processes through various departments and, if eventually successful, shire ratepayers are usually left to pick up the majority of costs.

Cr Goss claimed the failure to get a government contribution - $500,000 – towards the $3 million cost of a proposed synthetic soccer pitch in Warragul was also due to politics.

The money Baw Baw was seeking went to Wonthaggi in a marginal Labor seat, he said.

Baw Baw is the sixth fastest growing municipality in the state but is missing out on the support it warrants from the government, Cr Goss said. 

When the rate of growth is outstripping the government capped rate of municipal rate increases the gap between residents’ needs and expectations gets wider all of the time, he added.

Upper House government Member for Eastern Victoria Harriet Shing said she would continue to support Baw Baw Council, as she said she had done in the past, on its strategic planning objectives.