Victorian Budget: the big ticket items funded outside of Melbourne

Victorian Budget: the big ticket items funded outside of Melbourne
Alastair TaylorMay 2, 2018

The priority TAFE courses that will attract no fees, as outlined in yesterday's Victorian budget, has translated into multiple funding commitments to new TAFE facility construction and upgrades across Victoria.

The Bendigo Advertiser is today reporting the $59.9 million announced for Bendigo TAFE's City Campus is a 'game-changer' and the money will be used to build 'a planned stage redevelopment for the creation of three separate TAFE precincts for education, community and commercial'.

Also on the cards in Bendigo is a portion of $20 million to be used for the acquisition of a site for a new court building within the city. 

Last year's budget included $1 million to plan for the consolidation of local council and state government public services in a new facility on a site that currently houses offices for the City of Greater Bendigo on Lyttleton Terrace, the Bendigo Advertiser reports.  $16 million was allocated for the project in this year's state budget.

Like the Bendigo initiative, Ballarat has similar yet more advanced project dubbed the Ballarat GovHub that is undergoing a formal planning process before it is scheduled to enter construction by the end of the year.

In Ballarat, the city benefits from the state budget with the ordering of 5 new X'Trapolis trains which are assembled at Alstom's workshops in the city.  After assembly, trains are then hauled with a locomotive to Melbourne for commissioning.

Tim Pallas' fourth budget had $460 million earmarked for a new Ballarat Base Hospital - which construction is expected to start in 2020. 

Roads and rail feeding into Ballarat are seeing hundreds of millions of dollars allocated through the budget. 

Track and signalling upgrades from Ballarat to Maryborough and Ararat feature in the Ballarat Courier's breakdown for the regional as well as $90 million for the planning and pre-construction work on the Beaufort and Ararat bypasses on the A8 Western Highway.

The Geelong Advertiser is today trumpeting the almost $1 billion worth of initiatives for the Geelong region.  One of the headline announcements was the formal allocation of funds - to the tune of $152.3 million - to Geelong's City deal which was first announced by the Prime Minister in January

Lara, in Geelong's northern suburbs, will be the site of a new $700 million prison and Barwon Health will be the recipient of one of the new emergency department crisis hubs - the $700 million announced for drug and mental health initiatives was one of the only surprises in the Treasurer's speech yesterday.

The Shepparton News is, of course, focusing on the moneys allocated to the region for the upgrades to the Shepparton & Seymour rail line.

"Shepparton rail line windfall" is the headline on an article which says the $313 million was more than what the local independent member for Shepparton thought would be allocated in the budget.  The upgrades would allow the line's services to rise from 5 return services a day to 9.

Lead image credit: Bendigo_Tafe on twitter.

Alastair Taylor

Alastair Taylor is a co-founder of Urban.com.au. Now a freelance writer, Alastair focuses on the intersection of public transport, public policy and related impacts on medium and high-density development.

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