He said it appeared the Victorian Government “had forgotten Shepparton exists”.
“Every time I’ve come up here, I’ve met so many different community groups, whether it’s the CFA volunteers, your local Search and Rescue group, they’re all people that give back to the community, and now they’ve got a government that continuously penalises them,” Mr Battin said.
“The Emergency Services (and Volunteers) Levy, which goes on every property and every business, is going to hit farmers first and hardest, but also our volunteers.”
He said, if elected to power, the Liberals and Nationals would scrap the tax, suggesting the current government was shifting the cost and that the money was not really going into emergency services.
“We all know the savings they’re making in other areas will go to either pay off their debt, or worse, go into suburban rail loop, stripping money from regional community to pay for a pet project.
“Emergency services are funded through general revenue, and they’ve been funded through general revenue for many years. This is not a funding coming in to support volunteers. This funding is going to fund things like in Melbourne with the triple zero or the state control centre.
“We would make sure that we keep the money back in the pockets of those who deserve it, who are already struggling under a cost-of-living crisis and struggling under a drought here across Victoria.”
He said as regional towns grew, his party wanted to see more first-home buyers with an opportunity to move to them.
He said the Liberals and Nationals would remove the requirement for first-home buyers to pay stamp duty on properties up to a million dollars.
Mr Battin said he’d felt welcomed by the community with every visit to Shepparton, but the feedback this time was that something was not quite right in Victoria.
“We just need that little bit extra support to ensure that we can achieve what we know we can achieve in this wonderful community,” he said.
“And we know that areas up here, whether it’s manufacturing, farming or all the small retailers, they’re feeling the extra kick, what they need is a change of government so we can ensure that we can remove many of those barriers and give them the opportunities that they thoroughly deserve.”
Mr Battin said state Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell had been keeping him up to date with local demand for further upgrades to GV Health, the Shepparton Sports Stadium and the area’s fruit fly program.
“We’ve still got more meetings today, and I’ll be coming back to Shepparton. This isn’t a one stop,” he said.
“I've been up here a few times. My uncle was a copper in Mooroopna, so I know the area somewhat.”
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