Ballarat is election ready - Mayoral Opinion Piece

In 2022, Ballarat voters will go to the polls twice – at a federal election due between now and the end of May, and a state election on the last Saturday in November. 

Both polls represent important opportunities to secure funding for a range of projects which are critical for the future of our city and region. 

Projects that will bring investment and jobs and provide the facilities and infrastructure that will enhance daily life for our residents, and best position us for pandemic recovery and growth.

The City of Ballarat is ready for the opportunities elections bring, in fact we’ve been ready for some time. 

Our Council Plan 2021 – 2025 committed us to delivering targeted advocacy campaigns to the Victorian and Australian governments for key community priorities.

We’re well advanced in our advocacy work at both the state and federal level. In the past year City of Ballarat CEO Evan King and I have had numerous meetings and communications with Members of Parliament from a range of parties including Ministers and their Opposition counterparts.

You might ask why it’s necessary to advocate for funding to other levels of government when we already receive funding through rates.
In 2020/21, rates and charges in the City of Ballarat contributed $126.7 million out of a total income of $277.4 million. 
Victorian and Australian government grants are vital for the delivery of service, the maintenance of our infrastructure and the building of new infrastructure. 
This money enables us to deliver more than 80 services and maintain the $2 billion in public assets under Council management.  

The funding we’re seeking from other levels of government through our advocacy will help deliver important projects over and above business as usual - projects needed to cater for a growing population, projects which are simply beyond our capacity to fund and deliver on our own.  
Successfully attracting funding for these priority projects means we can focus our budget on delivering those essential services and maintaining community infrastructure.
In tackling the advocacy challenge, we have taken a two-pronged approach. 

We began early in our first year as a Council, agreeing on a list of City of Ballarat-managed projects that we will seek funding for from state and federal governments, ranging from smaller scale improvements to city and region-defining initiatives.

From those discussions and deliberations, we’ve grouped our priority projects for advocacy according to the impact they’ll have at a regional, city-wide or local level. 

They include tier one regionally transformational projects like Ballarat Link Road and expansion of our Major Events Precinct, tier two projects of citywide significance including a Regional Animal Facility and tier three projects of local significance such as a Buninyong Skate Park, Learmonth Oval upgrades and revitalisation works at Redan wetlands.

As you can see from this small sample, these projects are spread across a range of locations the length and breadth of our municipality, and, in most instances have been backed by extensive community consultation.

We wanted to make sure everyone who has a stake in decisions about these projects is crystal clear on what Ballarat wants and needs.

Of course, that includes our residents, and you can read more about these 29 projects at a new advocacy and lobbying section on the City of Ballarat website.

We’ve been encouraged by the response we’ve received to our advocacy on these projects over the past year, and pleasingly we’ve already seen some major funding promises in recent months. 
In November the Federal Labor Opposition committed $4.5 million for a new Sebastopol Community Centre, while the State Liberal Opposition committed $7.million for the Miners Rest Community and Sporting Hub. 
We hope these are the first of many such commitments as we draw nearer to election dates at federal and state level.

While we’re confident each of these projects represents a sound investment for the Victorian and Australian governments, we realise we’re unlikely to receive funding for all of them in 2022. 

But no matter what point of the election cycle we are in, we will continue to talk to all sides of politics, both in Canberra and in Spring Street, to make sure Ballarat gets our fair share of funds from state and federal governments. 

As a growing city of more than 112,000 people, and the regional capital of Western Victoria, that is what is needed to underpin our pandemic recovery and build for a strong and sustainable future.
Secondly, the City of Ballarat is also working with key Ballarat organisations representing the health, education, visitor economy and business sectors on our shared city-wide priorities for advocacy. 

This is the Ballarat. Now and Into the Future 2022 (BNIF 2022) suite of projects. Some of these priorities are City of Ballarat projects, others are from our BNIF 2022 partner organisations. All of them represent important investments for the future of our city and our people.

We know that by working together we will present a coordinated and compelling case for further investment in Ballarat. 

You can be confident that when the elections come around, Ballarat is ready. Visit ballarat.vic.gov.au/advocacy to find out more.

- City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Daniel Moloney