PORK barrelling has resulted in the ultra-marginal seat of Corangamite living high on the hog during this election campaign while safe Wannon has been thrown the scraps from Canberra.
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The Standard can reveal the Labor and Liberal parties have committed a combined $600.3 million in election pledges to the ultra-marginal Corangamite electorate which has been fiercely contested by major-party leaders Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.
In contrast, the combined party spend for Wannon is a dismal $7.3 million.
A similar number of voters live in each electorate, however voting behaviour is markedly different, with Wannon considered safe by pollsters and party chiefs.
Labor has failed to spend one cent on election pledges specific to the region during the 2010 campaign in Wannon.
This is contrasted with Corangamite where Labor MP Darren Cheeseman has offered $305.5 million in targeted federal funding for highway construction, football clubs, gymnasiums, hospitals and housing projects.
Liberal opponent Sarah Henderson pledged $294.8 million in her bid to win back the seat, which spans from Colac to suburban Geelong.
Ms Henderson has declared she would bankroll the $257.5 million duplication of the Princes Highway between Colac and Winchelsea if elected, a figure matched by Mr Cheeseman.
Five south-west mayors joined forces last week to call on the major parties to commit to funding 21 passing lanes along the Wannon stretch of the Princes Highway, a project less than half the cost of Colac-Winchelsea duplication under VicRoads cost estimates.
Both Wannon Liberal candidate Daniel Tehan and Wannon Labor candidate Judith McNamara failed to get their party to back the project which had been on the political agenda for close to a decade.
The lack of funding commitment from the major parties will bolster the vote count for independents including Ralph Leutton, James Purcell and Katrina Rainsford at today’s election, according to three south-west mayors.
Mr Tehan has out-spent Ms McNamara in election pledges but the figure pales in comparison to the splurge in neighbouring Corangamite.
The Liberal candidate has pledged $5 million for a Medicare licence to make Warrnambool’s newly-installed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) service publicly available.
He has also committed to fund a Casterton childcare centre development and green army projects in three shires.
Based on Australian Electoral Commission voter figures finalised last month, $5910 worth of election pledges has been offered up to each Corangamite voter while the same figure for Wannon was $79.
The Standard decided to omit a pledge by both the federal government and opposition to spend $505 million on a staged upgrade of the Western Highway between Ballarat and Stawell as it was first flagged during the 2007 election.
