Yarra Ranges Council has updated its advocacy priorities at the Tuesday 25 November council meeting.
The council updates its advocacy agenda each year, identifying key items they wish to raise with state and federal governments going forward.
O’Shannassy Ward councillor Jim Child said he thinks the proof is in the pudding.
“We’ve been down this path in regards to advocacy priorities in the past and we have been successful in the past, I think we just have to look at the advocacy priorities set for the previous year and the outcomes there,” he said.
“They’re well and truly written in the report in regards to the wins that we had out of the last federal election, but going into the future we’ve got a state election next year.
“I think we’re well and truly acquainted with these priorities and I think in today’s financial climate in regards to state and federal government, we’ve actually got to get out there, we’ve got to do the hard yards and that’s what we will be doing.”
Yarra Ranges Council’s priorities for the next two years consist of: strengthening youth services, funding for 10 safer crossings, ‘funding fairness’ for communities, sustainable transport, developing a ‘Greenprint’, funding to design and build a modern aquatic and leisure centre, affordable housing and funding for the Birrarung/Yarra River crossing on the Yarra Valley Trail project.
Ryrie Ward councillor Fiona McAllister said they’ve learnt and have a wonderful team who continually remind them that a focused effort and being in unison about the things that matter most for our community now are important.
“In fact, critical if we’re actually going to get money in an environment where both state and federal government are giving us less and less money by every week, not just every year, but every week,” she said.
“I did, however, want to point out that and maybe it’s to reassure many in our community who will look at this and go ‘Where is the thing that is most important for me that’s not on this list’, that there is a huge amount of other advocacy that we do.
“This is our core list, looking for substantial amounts of money that we need to make a difference on some really critical projects but it doesn’t mean all of those other things we aren’t still advocating for and writing to ministers and looking for results for our community.”
Some of the key asks from the Yarra Ranges priorities include:
Expanding the Mental Health & Wellbeing Local, particularly to the Upper Yarra and Yarra Valley.
Upgrading dangerous crossings in Kallista, Lilydale, Mooroolbark, Mount Evelyn, Olinda, Sassafras, Seville East, Wandin North, Yarra Glen and Yarra Junction.
Restoring funding programs such as Roads for Community and the Growing Suburbs Fund while considering removals or exemptions from the Emergency Services Volunteers Levy and Windfall Gains Tax.
Review and upgrade bus services, continue upgrades of Belgrave Station and duplicate the Lilydale Line between Lilydale and Mooroolbark.
Provide $1.5 million over four years to develop and deliver ‘a strategic model to map, prioritise and reconnect fragmented habitats, restore ecological corridors and strengthen resilience’.
$1 million for a business case and then $20 million each over time from the state and federal governments for an indoor aquatic and leisure centre in the urban region.
Ask the Victorian Government to implement a new state planning provision mandating affordable housing when land is rezoned for residential use or when large-scale housing developments are approved.
$11 million to fund and deliver the Birrarung/Yarra River crossing of the Yarra Valley Trail project.
Billanook Ward councillor Tim Heenan said everyone is plainly aware these days that local government cannot do it alone.
“It’s all very well to say that you know we have a certain amount of time, that we have a particular amount of money to run a program and has always been the case for local government, particularly here at Yarra Ranges, the years I’ve been,” he said.
“It’s gone along fine for many years and we lose that seed funding or we have a change of government or we have a change of minister or someone you know has another thought bubble and we haven’t got that funding and we’re left holding the baby.
“We have so many needs and you’ll see by the advocacy list, as Cr McAllister mentioned, it’s quite long, in depth and all of these things are important and critical to Yarra Ranges.”
Some recent successes from the council’s advocacy program have included a $5.76 million allocation from the federal Thriving Suburbs Program to rebuild the pavilion at the Don Road Reserve in Healesville and an additional $3 million for the Warburton Bike Park to complete the southern network as an election commitment from the Albanese Government.
Cr Heenan said he sincerely hopes the Yarra Ranges gets a decent lot of the pie in order for their projects, programs and services to go ahead.
“State and federal governments need to understand that we can’t just stand there like a young child begging for lollies when we need tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars in the future in order to maintain all of what we have here in Yarra Ranges,” he said.
“We have a very, very big shire, the fifth largest in the state of Victoria, which means that we should be looked at much more favourably by both sides of politics.”
