What we want
Bob Hickman: the roads campaigner with his 1962 Vespa. Standing on the verge of the South Gippsland Highway near Ruby was dangerous enough, let alone travelling on it.
DILAPIDATED roads, a shortage of doctors and inequitable rates are among the issues for South Gippslanders ahead of the state election this Saturday.
Whoever assumes power will need to take heed. People are not happy in this part of the country.
Many will say that potholed, disintegrating roads have become the most potent symbol of government neglect in South Gippsland.
Koonwarra roads campaigner, Bob Hickman, who jokingly referred to himself as “Mr Pothole,” believes the issue of dangerous roads to be the most pressing one facing the region.
A semi-regular guest on ABC radio, the Vespa owner said his weekly drive to Warragul was fraught with danger.
The drive between Bena and Korumburra was equally dangerous: “There’s a bloody big hole there. It’s absolutely lethal.”
The South Gippsland Highway near Ruby is similarly perilous, he said.
“The simple fact is we’ve got to get from A to B. It’s not just your cars and motorbikes, but your big transporters as well – your milk trucks and your cattle. It’s an important infrastructure and it’s got to be maintained,” he said.
“I don’t think Labor is going to spend nearly enough. They’re just going to patch, patch, patch. The Coalition might, if they get in.
“Or we can all vote independent and that way something might get done, because they always seem to throw the money at the independents and the marginal seats.”
South Gippsland Shire Council mayor Cr Jim Fawcett also listed roads as the big issue facing the region, but said early childhood development and tourism are other areas in serious need of funding too.
Immediate past president of the Rural Doctors Association and Wonthaggi GP, Nola Maxfield, said the training of old-style country doctors was of paramount importance to the region.
“The RDA is asking whichever party takes power to support what we’re trying to develop with the Commonwealth Government, with the Rural Generalist training program,” she said.
“The program is all about training people who want to become rural doctors and giving them a broader range of skills, so they can deliver babies, give anaesthetic, do surgery, deal with mental health emergencies and emergency medicine.
“We particularly need these programs in South Gippsland, because we need to ensure that the doctors doing this type of work in our hospitals are able to be replaced in the future. The doctors doing this type of work are, typically, in their 50s now.”
UDV president of the South Gippsland branch Max Jelbart, said farmers were looking for a more equitable rates system, with many equity-rich but cash-poor landholders arguing for a change to “the inequity of rural rating”.
“It’s partly a state government, partly a local government, partly a federal government issue. People’s rates are actually higher than what they can earn off their farms,” he said.
Mr Jelbart said that although land values had risen significantly, farmers’ incomes had not.
“Coastal values have particularly gone up. They’re being hit with higher rates and they don’t have the capacity to pay them,” he said.
“People are pretty upset.”
Mr Jelbart added that the ambulance situation was also critical, with waiting times unacceptable, whether it be a farming accident or something else.
Leongatha Chamber of Commerce president Darryl McGannon believes the party that takes government must ensure a bypass for the town.
“Unfortunately this town has been crying out for a bypass for the past 30 to 40 years. We’re still sitting here and nothing’s happened,” Mr McGannon said.
“What we need to do is support the council’s Leongatha Structure Plan, which has a heavy vehicle bypass route. The community really needs to support this option. Otherwise we’ll be dead and buried and nothing will have happened.”
Education may be faring better, though, with the Leongatha Education Precinct making steady, if staggered, progress.
In the Bass Coast shire, council CEO Alan Bawden is positive about the future of a Bass Coast Education Precinct, an “initiative that came out of the council education plan”.
“Our education plan was really adopted from an economic development point of view, making sure we had a skilled workforce into the future,” he said.
The precinct, which will be located in Wonthaggi, is being designed so young people are not forced to move away for study and to make sure older people are able to retrain.
Mr Bawden said the political parties had been positive about the plan, which would involve several institutions, and involve many off-campus “e-learning opportunities”.
“We’ve had a bit of support from the parties. We’ve had some help in developing a precinct master plan. We’d like government support to now implement this plan,” he said.
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