THE 2025–26 Victorian State Budget, handed down last Tuesday by Treasurer Jaclyn Symes, has sparked frustration among local representatives, who say the government has again overlooked Mansfield Shire and regional Victoria more broadly.
Ms Symes, who also serves as the Member for Northern Victoria, delivered her first budget since being appointed Treasurer in December last year following Tim Pallas’s resignation.
State Member for Eildon Cindy McLeish did not hold back in her assessment of the budget’s direction and implications.
“We should all be worried that the budget, true to form, has been built on fantasy forecasts and spiralling debt," said Ms McLeish.
"Just when you think the debt could not have got worse, it has – the government is continuing to borrow money to pay for the Premier’s pet city projects.
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"I thought a debt of $188 billion was bad enough but this budget shows it is expected to grow to $194 billion.
"State loan repayments will be $1.2 million an hour.
“Premier Allan might be trying to ignore the debt, but Moody’s Ratings Agency has made it clear that the debt burden is a dangerous risk for our state.
"A ratings downgrade means we pay more in interest, sucking funding from projects to benefit the community.
“Many families in regional Victoria are already reeling from the cost-of-living crisis and feeling the brunt of Labor’s financial mismanagement.
"On top of that we have the callous new emergency services tax that hits all ratepayers – residential and commercial, but with an additional sting for our farmers being slugged a higher rate.
“Locally, there has also been major misses, with no funding towards a new Mansfield SES Station, Ambulance station or the much-needed emergency services precinct.
"This is incredibly disappointing for those organisations who have been waiting for station upgrades for well over a decade.
“Victoria has the highest debt of any state, with families and businesses being squeezed harder every year.
“Because of Labor’s financial mismanagement we are seeing crumbling roads, record hospital waitlists and $2.4 billion cut from our public schools.
“The Allan Labor Government has also cut Agriculture funding by $77.6 million – almost 13 per cent, and slashed regional development funding by 17 per cent from $296.7 million to $245.6 million.”
Mansfield Shire Council echoed these concerns, with Mayor Cr Steve Rabie saying it was a shame the regions had been ignored overall and expressing disappointment at the lack of support for local infrastructure and services in the latest budget.
“This is an extremely metro-centric budget,” said Cr Rabie.
“Mansfield Shire has been completely ignored in this budget, along with most of our regional neighbours.
“The biggest spend in this state budget is the Melbourne Airport Rail at $4.1bn.
“Let’s be honest here.
"We are all paying for the blowout of the Melbourne Metro Tunnel, which has caused this budget crisis.
"I would have expected that with the regions doing it tough, and with regional communities being ripped off by the unfair ESVF tax, that we would have seen something – anything – as a token of support in this budget.
“If you live in the city, you’ll get cost of living help with free public transport for kids and weekend transport for seniors.
"If you live in Mansfield, you barely even have any public transport.
“That’s $318m over four years that we won’t be seeing here, unless we’ve made our way to Melbourne on the bus.
"The budget is silent on regional public transport.
“If we look instead at our roads, then, it doesn’t seem that there is any extra funding for roundabouts.
"We have been advocating specifically for roundabout funding to make intersections safer.
“The state government is mandating housing targets, saying that we must plan for more homes.
"This will increase the population and put pressure on our road network.
"When all the extra people are on our roads, how will they safely drive on our roads?
“Rural Councils Victoria have been advocating for the continuation of funding for country roads and bridges.
"This didn’t come through either.
"We are pleased that the Department of Transport and Planning will have additional funding in this budget to fix potholes on state-owned roads.
"This is critical as the worst of our roads are actually state roads and we have been advocating strongly for their repair.
"But the road network is expensive to maintain and our local roads need to be funded too.
“If the state government respected regional voters, it would be evident in this budget," said Cr Rabie.
