Federal budget offers a mixed bag for south-west voters

One area to receive substantial ongoing funding was local roads and other small projects, with the Local Road and Community Infrastructure program extended for two more years.

The new funding will flow directly to local councils, which then control delivery of the individual projects.

Moyne Shire was the biggest winner among south-west councils, receiving more than $2.7 million in additional funding.

Corangamite Shire was another council to get a significant funding boost, with nearly $2.3 million. Mayor Ruth Gstrein had said road funding was at the top of the shire's agenda and she was "fairly happy" with how the budget had turned out.

"More money going into local roads is always great," she said.

Glenelg and Southern Grampians shires also received $2.2 million and $2 million in new funding. Warrnambool City Council, which has a much small road network, only received $425,000.

Federal Member for Wannon Dan Tehan said south-west councils would reap the benefits and that it wasn't just roads that would be improved.

"This funding injection for our hard-working local councils means even more funding for upgrades to local roads, bike paths, community halls, playgrounds, parks and sports facilities, as well as improved accessibility to public facilities," Mr Tehan said.

"Providing more time for planning and construction will enable local governments to consider a broader range of priority projects and potentially undertake larger, more complex developments to deliver even greater benefits for their communities."

Mr Tehan also spruiked a separate $17.9 billion national investment in major road, rail and community infrastructure projects, but digging into the numbers the benefits for the south-west were more vague.

Of the $17.9 billion, $3.4 billion would go to Victoria over 10 years, but none of the projects singled out in the budget papers were located in the south-west.

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Mr Tehan said the new funding would help boost "vital local projects such as Princes Highway West upgrades, Warrnambool rail line upgrade and dairy supply chain roads," but no new funding for these projects was listed in the publicly available papers.

A further boost to local governments came through the extension and expansion of Financial Assistance Grants, which provide untied funding that councils can spend as they see fit.

The majority of the 2022-23 funding was brought forward to this financial year, providing an immediate boost to cash-strapped councils. Cr Gstrein said while this wreaked havoc with council balance sheets it was "good to have the money now".

"It's pleasing to see the Financial Assistance Grants have been extended and increased with indexation because they've funded some vital projects. And the first two instalments will flow through before June 30," she said.

South-west residents are sure to benefit from the halving of fuel excises, which are likely to cut the cost of filling the tank by as much as $10.

Meanwhile one-off $420 tax offsets for low- and middle-income earners, and $250 one-off payments for pensioners, veterans and welfare recipients will provide short term cost-of-living relief. But cuts to other areas raise questions about the longer term pressures being felt throughout the region.

Funding for childcare workers will be slashed by 25 per cent from its pandemic levels. With staffing levels already falling well short of demand this is likely to create problems for parents with young children looking to return to the workforce.

The most vulnerable also appear to have been left out in the cold, with funding for social housing cut by 37 per cent in the next financial year and then by a further 22.6 per cent over the following three years.

Regional arts funding was slashed by 60 per cent, from $18 million in 2021-22 to $7.5 million in 2022-23.

The budget allocated $1.3 billion over six years to improve regional telecommunications, which was another area local mayors said needed urgent funding. But Cr Gstrein said it was too early to say whether this was a win for south-west Victoria.

"At the moment that's just a bucket of cash, so it's a question of how much of it is going to come into Victoria and the south-west," she said.

In terms of specific project announcements, Hamilton locals should be happy, with Mr Tehan announcing $2 million over two years to fund a new Headspace mental health centre in the city, as well as granting a MRI licence for the local hospital.

Mr Tehan also announced $2.2 million to explore an upgrade to the Maroona to Portland freight rail line, which local stakeholders called a "gamechanger" for the port.

Aside from those projects, details were scarce, but Mr Tehan insisted he was bringing value to Wannon voters.

An analysis of the Commonwealth's Grant Connect program by the Sydney Morning Herald in December found Wannon had received only a fraction of the funding of its neighbours.

It found since December 2017, Wannon had received $6.94 million in grants, while Corangamite to the east got $55.2 million and Mallee to the north received nearly $66 million.

Mr Tehan said "the data used in the Sydney Morning Herald article does not paint a complete picture and in some places was erroneous".

He said he had brought a number of projects to the region during that period that didn't go through the Grant Connect program.

"These include the $100 million to upgrade the Warrnambool to Melbourne Rail line, over $140 million to upgrade our local roads, including adding overtaking lanes on the Princes Highway, over $100 million for the Twelve Apostles Visitor Centre, the Lake Pertobe redevelopment, the Warrnambool Racing Club Matilda Room upgrade, the Warrnambool Golf Club upgrade, and Bushfield Recreation Reserve lighting project and many more."

The Warrnambool Racing Club and Lake Pertobe projects were included in the SMH analysis. It is also possible that Corangamite and Mallee also received other grants through other programs, like Wannon.

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