I AM truly disappointed at the public disinformation campaign being run in Bendigo, through the media, by Labor MPs Jacinta Allan and Maree Edwards.
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Their claims would have you believe that somehow the state Coalition government has “turned its back” on Bendigo.
But let’s take just a few moments to look at the facts.
They claim “hundreds of local jobs lost”. But the latest official figures say the opposite, that the Bendigo unemployment rate is a low 4.9 per cent and steady. For central Victoria generally, the unemployment rate is trending down.
Labor is also trying to run a fear campaign on supposed cuts to CFA funding – “right before bushfire season”.
The fact is that in the most recent state budget, the Coalition government made the second biggest investment on record in the CFA – second only to the previous year’s Coalition state budget.
There has never been a government more committed to supporting the CFA than the Baillieu/Ryan government
It is true that this government is working hard to try to find savings across the state, but we all know why that’s necessary. It’s fixing up Labor’s financial mess.
Let’s remind Ms Allan and Ms Edwards of just one time bomb Labor left for us.
It is now known that Victorians will pay $1.8 million a day for the next 28 years for the Wonthaggi desal plant: enough to build 24 new secondary schools or 50 new trains a year!
The Baillieu/Ryan government in just two years has invested or committed an unprecedented three-quarters-of-a-billion dollars in developments in the Bendigo region.
Anyone who thinks that’s “turning your back” just needs to turn and face the truth.
Damian Drum MP
?member for Northern
?Victoria region