It is symptomatic of the state government’s treatment of rural Victoria that there have been five Ministers for Agriculture since Dan Andrews took over.
With the swearing in of Ros Spence, the member for Kalkallo, she is the fifth with that portfolio, having taken over from Gayle Tierney.
Jaala Pulford, Jaclyn Symes, and Mary-Anne Thomas had also held the chair since Andrews became Premier for the nine years beginning in November 2014.
With an Andrews government in Spring Street, many country people felt that regional infrastructure was neglected in favour of suburban development, and rural councils were often overlooked.
The new Agriculture Minister says she is looking forward to working with the industries which are “leading the way to make Victoria the food and wine capital of Australia”, and can’t wait to achieve more positive outcomes for them.
But the fact that she represents an electorate which covers Melbourne’s northern suburban fringe (including Craigieburn and Mickleham) does not augur well.
Nor does the situation with perhaps the biggest challenge facing the new minister: the deterioration of the road network which the “Buloke Times” has highlighted in the past (with pictures).
A snap audit has shown that the federal government, which has confirmed the blowout of nearly $33 billion in the national infrastructure pipeline, cannot afford any new projects for a decade, without significant changes to its investment program.
The review of 738 projects across Australia included about 100 Victorian projects; 41 per cent of the budget for the program is understood to be affected, and that amount is expected to blow out even further due to increasing supply chain costs and labour shortages.
The new plan is being worked on currently, and projects to be retained or removed are expected to be made public before December 30, to be fed into the government’s economic outlook by end of January 2024.
The significance of smaller projects, those valued at $5 million or less, and many outside metropolitan areas, will be considered, on criteria such as importance to tourism, improving roads and rail, connecting supply lines and communication between communities.
Of course, that is not the only problem facing the Premier, who weathered the millenium drought in her role as Regional & Rural Development Minister 2007- 2010, not to mention being Opposition Agriculture spokeswoman from 2013-2014.
She will have to cope with a string of issues, which include: water buyouts; the United Firefighters Union’s demands; the Australian Energy Market Regulator’s refusal to consider upgrading 220 kV lines along existing easements instead of carving up farmers’ land with 500 kV transmission lines; the wild-dog debate, where her Agriculture and Environment Ministers seem to be caving in to the Animal Justice Party (AJP, which this paper has warned about); even dismissing the AJP’s and Greens’ demand to ban duck hunting.
Coping with the state’s debt will be an overall problem, some of which the government has brought on itself.
We wish our new Premier (and the Agriculture Minister) good luck in handling these matters.
This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 20 October 2023.
