Opposition treasurer Michael O’Brien said the changes would guarantee more local knowledge on projects, more local jobs and more money would be spent in regional communities.

He said a Liberal National government would change government procurement policy and tender processes to encourage participation of local businesses in local projects.

Too often small and medium size businesses in regional Victoria are locked out of government tenders and unable to bid against lager Melbourne-based firms, he said.

Mr O’Brien said if there was a change of government the Liberal Nationals would break down large regional infrastructure projects into smaller components, enabling regional business to tender in their own right, rather than just hope for subcontracting work.

He said the coalition would also work with departments, councils and small and medium size businesses to actively promote government tenders and to educate businesses in how to participate in bidding for large regional infrastructure jobs.

Mr O’Brien said a coalition government would also support existing regional business and encourage new business to regional Victoria by reducing payroll tax for eligible businesses to one per cent.

He said encouraging jobs growth in regional Victoria was the cornerstone of the Liberal Nationals plan to decentralise Victoria.

“It will make a massive difference. Under the Liberals and Nationals regional businesses will only be paying one percent payroll tax, Melbourne businesses are paying 4.85 percent. It’s a massive advantage for regional Victoria,” Mr O'Brien said.

“What it is really about is driving jobs, more businesses will be growing, they will be more profitable and employing more Victorians,” he said.

The Opposition treasurer said Victoria was growing at around 150,000 people a year, and most of that growth was in Melbourne.

Smaller towns in regional Victoria are experiencing declining population rates and businesses are unable to fill to vacancies they do have, he said. 

Mr O’Brien said the Liberal Nationals were committed to creating a state of cities not a city state, but to achieve that the whole of Victoria had to grow.

He said the Liberal Nationals would get ahead of regional infrastructure by building a European-style high speed rail through Victoria, building a Geelong metro and investing $1 billion into regional roads.

Daniel Andrews is a Melbourne-centric Premier who has ignored everything beyond the tram tracks, he said.

“The Liberal Nationals will get back in control of population growth and ahead of regional infrastructure, to ensure we grow all of Victoria,” Mr O’Brien said.

South West Coast sitting member and Liberal candidate Roma Britnell said she was focused on government policies to help promote growth in the south-west.

“And to incentivise people to come and live in South West Coast,” she said.

“We have great jobs available here in the South West Coast, and a great lifestyle, but no one to fill them. We need to encourage growth down here in South West Coast and this policy will achieve that,” she said.

Warrnambool firm BDH Construction director Mick Hawkes said the changes to the tender system would help regional businesses like his.

“It will make a big difference. It will help local industries and businesses compete,” he said.

“We’ve been fortune over the years we’ve been successful on some of those small and medium tenders and this will only help business like our’s,” he said. 

Callaghan Motors principal Steve Callaghan said the change to payroll tax would also help regional businesses.

“Across our little group we employ 60 people, so it works out for us that we’ll save around $50,000 a year, for me that’s proactive for employment, that’s the result,” he said.

“In regional Victoria the hardest thing for us is to get good quality people and this will help,” he said.