Newly elected Leader of The Nationals, Danny O’Brien, has visited the Euroa region as one of his first regional visits as leader.
Mr O’Brien was joined by local colleague, The Nationals’ Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland, as the pair met with local CFA brigades, newspapers from Benalla, Seymour, and Kilmore, and community members and organisations across the region.
Infrastructure neglect across Seymour and Kilmore was a major topic of conversation, with a failure to invest in new schools, childcare facilities, and mental health services as a major concern.
“It was a pleasure to have the new Leader of The Nationals, Danny O’Brien, visit our region this week to discuss some of the big issues in our community,” Ms Cleeland said.
“It is important for our party leadership to get a firsthand understanding of some of the issues that are prevalent in our region, whether it be the lack of support provided to our emergency service volunteers, the need for more childcare, or a failure of this government to effectively invest in local infrastructure.”
Mr O’Brien said it was hard to rationalise Labor’s failure to invest in the region.
“Labor has shown no appetite to invest in local infrastructure despite pinpointing this as a major growth region,” Mr O’Brien said.
“In regional Victoria, we’ve been starved of infrastructure, our health and ambulance services are in crisis, our roads are crumbling, and regional communities are less safe than they were 10 years ago.
“It’s bitterly ironic that regional Victorians are so neglected under the watch of a regional Victorian Premier.”
Ms Cleeland pinpointed recent decisions by Labor to remove funding from local mental health and family violence services as particularly disturbing, with family violence incidents in the region continuing to be recorded at alarming rates.
“We’ve seen mental health services suspended at Nexus Health, and the removal of crucial family violence providers across the region, despite a pressing need to address these issues,” Ms Cleeland said.
“This decision will be leaving an area firmly in the throes of a family violence epidemic at even greater risk.”
Total family violence incidents within the Mitchell Shire increased by 21.5 per cent in the last year, with a total of 1327 incidents.
Meanwhile, the rate of family violence incidents within the Mitchell Shire is 50 per cent higher than the state average and incidents have trended upwards for the last three years.
