Mr Walsh has come out swinging, claiming the budget shows Premier Daniel Andrews has “no plan and no money” for regional Victoria, including Murray Plains.
And while Ms Symes hit back at Mr Walsh’s claims of Labor neglect, saying they were “entirely wrong”, she danced around confirming or denying several of his allegations.
Mr Walsh claimed one of the biggest blows was Labor’s axing of the Regional Growth Fund – a cut he said left regional communities without a dedicated investment grants program.
“What is in the budget is a collection bundled up of what is actually recurrent expenditure that should be there anyhow, without a dedicated fund to drive decentralisation and drive population growth in regional Victoria,” he said in Parliament on Tuesday.
He added a further cut to the Regional Development Victoria (RDV) base funding would lead to program closures and job losses in regional offices.
While Ms Symes hasn’t confirmed Labor’s cut to the Regional Growth Fund, a minister spokesperson said it was “business as usual” for RDV.
The spokesperson said an investment of $134 million would continue RDV’s base funding for the next financial year, including support for a grant program for regional infrastructure and jobs.
Mr Walsh claimed farmers would also miss out in the state budget.
“(There is) no money for council rates relief for drought-affected farmers, no commitment to a rural crime squad, a $48 million cut to the agriculture budget and a $2.8 million cut to agriculture R and D,” he said.
But Ms Symes’ spokesperson countered Labor would spend more than $470 million on agriculture (touted as a $60 million increase on the former Coalition government’s final budget), including the state’s “biggest ever” boost to biosecurity.
“When it comes to cuts, Mr Walsh and the Nationals are the experts,” Ms Symes said.
“They cut frontline biosecurity services by 49 per cent, leaving our hardworking farmers at risk of being severely affected by a pest or disease outbreak.”
When it came to local schools and the CFA, Mr Walsh was equally scathing.
“There’s no funding for new CFA stations at Rochester or Leitchville,” he said.
“There is very little in the way of school upgrade funding for regional schools across the state and in our area unfortunately Cohuna Secondary College, Kyabram P-12 and Swan Hill Specialist School have all missed out.
“The one thing that is in the budget that is good is the allocation for Echuca Specialist School ... which is a great outcome for community activism.”
Ms Symes once again dodged her opponent’s claims, highlighting instead the budget would deliver $149 million for regional schools, $804 million for country roads and 500,000 specialist medical appointments for regional Victorians.
She also emphasised the new $2.6 billion Delivering for Regional and Rural Victoria Program, a silver bullet set to improve public transport, country roads, schools and TAFE facilities and provide critical health facility upgrades – supporting 4500 jobs in the regions.
“Our record in regional Victoria speaks for itself – we’ve slashed regional payroll tax, introduced free TAFE to the regions and put Victorian workers first, creating more than 60,000 new jobs in regional Victoria and cutting the regional unemployment rate to the lowest on record,” she said.
“We won’t be taking lectures from those who allowed unemployment rates to balloon and spent just half of what we have in the regions in their time in government.”
