Both the state Minister for Public Transport and Employment Jacinta Allan and opposition leader Matthew Guy addressed the ‘Victoria Summit 2015 – Regional Victoria’. 

And the Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Mark Stone was frank as to why. 

“I’ve got a simple philosophy,” Mr Stone said in the lead up to the summit. 

“One day opposition becomes government and we work with both government and the opposition at state and federal level because it’s an opportunity for us to get up close and personal to hear what the current government is thinking and doing... and also what the opposition would do if they had chance.”

The VECCI chief would no doubt be pleased, then, to hear Mr Guy’s post conference statements on an issue he had told the Bendigo Advertiser was top of his priority lists – repealing the two new public holidays introduced by Premier Daniel Andrews. 

“It’s one of the conversations we are having internally, not necessarily Easter Sunday, but certainly the Grand Final Eve public holiday,” the opposition leader said.

“I don’t think anyone in Victoria really seriously thinks that we need a public holiday for Grand Final Eve… the AFL never wanted it, and I don’t think anyone else in the state did either.”

Friday’s summit at the Bendigo Town Hall heard feedback from eight different forums held across regional Victoria over recent months, from which VECCI drew to form its policy wishlist. 

Mr Stone also identified slashing red tape as a high priority for his members. 

VECCI proposes raising the 25 per cent regulatory reform target to a 30 per cent reduction in the level of red tape by June 2016.

“There’s a continuous growth in new laws coming from governments at all levels, local, state and federal, which require businesses to produce more data and paper work,” he said. 

“This has significant impact in terms time spent and we want government to reintroduce a simple idea which can cut down on that, which is a red tape commission.”

Earlier this year the Andrews’ government absorbed the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission into the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

It was a move critics said would limit the commission’s ability to give arm's-length advice.