Mayor's Message 21 July, 2023

Hello everyone,

I’m sure like me, you were shocked at the Premier’s announcement earlier this week that Victoria will not be proceeding with hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

There’s no doubt this is a disappointing outcome for the athletes and organisers however, we welcome the silver lining that $2 billion will now be redirected to regional Victoria to ensure it still receives the benefits that would have been facilitated by the Games.

Included in this package is the $1 billion Regional Housing Fund which will deliver more than 1,300 new homes across the state in a mix of social and affordable housing, $60 million for a Regional Community Sport Fund and $170m to go toward supporting regional tourism.

This is certainly exciting news for the whole of regional Victoria and a step in the right direction, in particular, for addressing the housing crisis. It’s also an opportunity for us to chase funding for some of our ageing community sporting infrastructure, which we know so many of our communities rely on for sporting endeavours as well as social connection.

We’ll provide more information on what exactly this means for Indigo Shire once we know more.

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit a number of flood affected areas around Echuca prior to attending the Rural Council Victoria Forum. The forum was a great opportunity to meet with Mayors, Councillors and executives and hear from keynote speakers on our shared opportunities and challenges, but it was the flood affected facilities and infrastructure that really resonated with me.

The impact of this damage on these communities is ongoing and significant and it really highlighted the importance of continuing to advocate for the inclusion of “betterment” in emergency recovery funding.

This inclusion would mean that emergency recovery funding would be available to rebuild or repair assets damaged by emergency events such as flooding, with more appropriate solutions should the need be identified.

In light of climate change and the increased frequency of extreme weather events, replacing our infrastructure with like-for-like feels short-sighted and means we’ll potentially find our assets similarly damaged the next time we’re faced with an emergency.

Instead, if we were in a position to future-proof them at the time of repair, we could rather work toward long-term recovery for our communities and equip them the best we can versus bracing for impact every time there’s a severe weather warning.

Finally, this week we welcomed five new citizens with a Citizenship Ceremony at our chambers yesterday. I was unfortunately unable to attend due to illness and want to thank our Deputy Mayor Bernard Gaffney for presiding over the formalities and for offering such a warm welcome to our newest citizens.

We wish all of them our very best and hope Indigo Shire will be your happy home for many, many years to come.

Sophie Price