The commitments I'm fighting for on behalf of regional communities, and what a change of government would mean for our region.
I'm proud to call regional Victoria home. I live on our farm near Seymour with my husband David and our three children, Arthur, Quinn and Sigrid.
Before entering politics I spent more than a decade as a journalist telling the stories of regional Australians, and became the youngest person ever appointed national agricultural journalist and editor with Fairfax Media and Stock & Land.
That work took me to kitchen tables and saleyards across the country, and it taught me something I've carried into Parliament: regional people don't ask for special treatment. They ask for a fair go, and a fair share of the funding their taxes pay for.
Since 2022 I've been The Nationals Member for Euroa. My job is to make sure the decisions made in Spring Street work for the towns I represent.
Since being elected in 2022, here's what representing Euroa has looked like.
The big-ticket local projects I'm fighting for, town by town.
KilmoreA public secondary schoolA Liberal and Nationals Government will deliver Kilmore's first public secondary school.Read moreA Liberal and Nationals Government will deliver Kilmore's first public secondary school.
Kilmore is one of Victoria's fastest-growing communities, yet after twelve years of Labor, it still doesn't have a public secondary school. We'll develop a formal plan to secure the land and build the infrastructure Kilmore needs.
Our Fair Share Guarantee will lock in at least 25 per cent of the state's investment for regional Victoria, so growing communities like Kilmore, will get its fair share of funding.
Albury lineDouble the V/Line servicesThe Nationals and Liberals will double services on the Albury line, delivering more trains and more seats for regional passengers.Learn moreThe Nationals and Liberals will double services on the Albury line.
For city commuters, missing a train can mean waiting minutes. For regional passengers, it can mean waiting hours.
Regional Victorians pay the same taxes as Melbourne, but get fewer trains, fewer seats and no alternative when a service is cancelled. Our plan increases the seats available every day, so more passengers can travel.
More seats will give passengers a better chance of sitting for the journey. No more standing for hours. No more sitting on the floor.
More capacity on the Albury line means less crowding, and a service that matches what regional Victorians pay for.
Ten commitments from The Nationals' plan for regional Victoria.
01Our Fair Share GuaranteeThe Nationals guarantee 25 per cent of all new government infrastructure investment will be spent in regional Victoria.Read the commitmentRegional Victoria is home to 25 per cent of our state's population. But under Labor, we receive less than 12 per cent of infrastructure funding. 12 cents in every dollar.
For 12 years, regional Victorians have watched money flow into Melbourne mega-projects and $15 billion of CFMEU corruption while our roads crumble, our hospitals lose services and our schools wait for upgrades that never come.
The Nationals will end that neglect with our Fair Share Guarantee: at least 25 per cent of all new government infrastructure investment will be spent in regional Victoria.
Not a vague commitment. Not an aspiration. Locked-in funding, so our roads, our hospitals, our schools and our rail services get the investment they need and our communities deserve.
That means money that has been disappearing into Melbourne tunnels will instead fix the Princes Highway through Gippsland, upgrade the Calder to Mildura, rebuild flood-damaged roads around Rochester and Seymour, and deliver the hospital and school upgrades our towns have been promised for years.
25 per cent of the people. 25 per cent of the funding. Our fair share. Guaranteed.
A responsible 10 year plan to fix the budget, without cutting essential services or raising your taxes. Victoria is carrying nearly $200 billion in debt, and Victorians are paying $1 million an hour, nearly $9 billion a year in interest.
Regional Victorians know the state of our roads better than anyone. We drive them every day to work, to school, to the shops or local sport. We know which road floods every winter and which stretch has been waiting years for more than a patch or a reduce speed sign.
Whether it's potholes on the Princes Highway through Gippsland, rough surfaces on the Goulburn Valley Highway, the Murray Valley Highway crumbling between our river towns, or flood-damaged local roads around Rochester and Seymour that still haven't been properly repaired, regional drivers are paying the price for Labor's neglect with damaged cars, longer trips and lives put at risk.
Every dollar lost to waste and corruption on the Big Build is a dollar that should be fixing highways in Gippsland, upgrading roads in the Mallee and repairing the routes our families and freight rely on.
We'll stop the waste and invest in safer roads across regional Victoria.
Regional Victorians deserve to feel safe in their homes, on their streets and in their towns. Right now, too many don't.
From Shepparton to Mildura to the Latrobe Valley, families are dealing with increasing youth crime, repeat offenders released on bail, and police stations that sit closed or without staff when they're needed most. Under Labor, more than 40 police stations have closed or had their hours reduced, many of them in regional communities.
The Nationals will recruit 3,000 new police officers to boost frontline numbers and reopen the more than 40 police stations closed by Labor or operating on reduced hours. To fill gaps, we'll recruit experienced officers from the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand: a proven approach used successfully in Western Australia.
Tough new bail laws will ensure offenders who break their bail conditions face jail, and are not simply released back into the community. We will introduce a one-strike bail rule, so offenders who commit a serious offence while on bail are automatically denied bail.
The range of offences treated as adult crimes will be expanded to include burglary, serious assault and attempted murder. Offenders who commit serious violent and sexual crimes will face tough penalties, regardless of age.
Our $100 million Safer Communities Plan will fund Restart, a Victorian-first residential responsibility and discipline program for serious repeat offenders aged 12 to 17, and Youthstart, investing in proven community-based interventions including Youth Justice Hubs, mentoring and family-based case management.
If you break bail, you will face jail.
Every household is making tough financial decisions, yet Labor continues to waste billions and sends Victorians the bill through higher taxes and charges.
Nobody has been hit harder than regional Victorians: farming families across the Wimmera and Mallee slugged by the emergency services tax, dairy farmers in Gippsland and fruit growers in the Sunraysia paying more to insure, register and run the businesses that feed this state.
The Nationals have committed to no new taxes or charges. Families and small businesses can count on no more tax hits and more money in their pocket.
These measures are not giveaways. They are investments in our people, in their ability to manage work and family life, and to keep more of what they earn.
No new taxes. Lower bills. More money in your pocket. When families prosper, the economy prospers.
It is getting harder to own or rent a home in regional Victoria. Poor planning has restricted the supply of land, government has been too slow to deliver essential infrastructure like roads, sewerage and electricity, while Labor has applied 30 new property taxes, making it more expensive to build homes.
The result: young people priced out of the towns they grew up in, and businesses in growing centres like Shepparton, Mildura, Wangaratta and Bairnsdale unable to attract workers because there's nowhere for them to live.
Instead of taxing housing, we will build more of it to restore the dream of home ownership for young regional Victorians.
More homes, built sooner, and a fair go for first home buyers.
When a regional hospital loses services, it's not an inconvenience — it's hours on the road for treatment, families separated during the hardest weeks of their lives, and communities losing confidence that help will be there when they need it.
Families in the Mallee shouldn't have to drive to Melbourne or Adelaide for care that should be available in Mildura. Parents in East Gippsland shouldn't have to choose between a long trip and going without.
And our Fair Share Guarantee means regional health infrastructure will finally get the investment it deserves – 25 per cent, locked in.
Your child's postcode should never limit their potential. But for too long, regional schools have been at the back of the queue, waiting for upgrades that never come, struggling to attract and retain teachers, and watching the money flow to Melbourne while country classrooms make do.
The Nationals believe every child in regional Victoria deserves the same start in life as a child in the city.
Great local schools providing a great education giving our children the best possible future.
Reliable, affordable energy is essential for every household and every business. Yet under Labor, Victorians are paying more for power while facing a looming supply gap as older generators retire and new capacity fails to keep pace.
Regional Victoria feels it first and worst: from the family farm running coolrooms and pumps, to the dairy processor in Gippsland, the food manufacturer in the Goulburn Valley and the irrigator in Sunraysia. And it's regional Victoria that's being asked to carry the burden of Labor's energy transition, with transmission lines and turbines forced onto prime farmland while Melbourne's rooftops sit empty.
Energy policy must be practical, balanced and focused on reliability.
Without reliable energy, every job, every business and every household suffers. We'll get the basics right: affordable, reliable, and fair to the regions.
You can't fix regional Victoria from Melbourne. You fix it by knowing which road floods every winter, which hospital has lost its cancer ward, and which town has been waiting years for mobile coverage that never comes.
We know, because these are our communities.
Infrastructure must serve people, not headlines. It must improve lives, not political outcomes.
Regional Victoria grows the food, powers the industries and generates the wealth. It's time our infrastructure reflected that.
Victorians deserve a government that respects their money. After 12 years of Labor, they have a government that spends $13 million on machete bins and $200,000 on pot plants while country roads crumble.
The $15 billion lost to corruption and criminals on Big Build construction sites is money that should be building hospitals in Ballarat, fixing highways in Gippsland and upgrading schools in the Mallee. The Nationals will redirect every dollar of waste back into the services our communities need.
We will be open and honest, and we will manage your money responsibly. A Nationals government will work for Victorians, not against them.
Your money should build your community, not disappear into waste and corruption.
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