The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, says Rochester families can celebrate confirmation they will get a kindergarten.
But Mr Walsh says how good that facility will be is yet to be revealed.
He says the kinder will be built with a slice of $991 million (“a slightly rubbery number as the Andrews Labor government has labelled it as an ‘estimated’ spend”) which has been made available for the whole state.
“But there is no indication of how much Rochester will get even though it deserves to be at the head of the queue when you take the past seven months into account,” Mr Walsh says.
“Today’s blood-soaked Budget makes it pretty clear Victoria is broke, and life is only going to get harder under Labor,” he says.
“As an immediate result, Victorians in general – and regional Victorians in particular – are being punished for Labor’s economic incompetence and while Rochester can enjoy some celebration that the hard work, the campaigning and the pushing by many people, including The Nationals, has paid dividends.”
Mr Walsh says unfortunately for too many other regional towns and districts, they have simply fallen through the crack of this Budget.
He says it has taken a lot of banging the drum on behalf of towns across his electorate to try and “save them from the disastrous Budget” unveiled in Melbourne today.
“That we were able to get any major projects across the line, such as this one, or Rochester’s CFA/SES hub, is a credit to the communities with which The Nationals were able to work,” Mr Walsh added.
“Rochester is a town which has always punched above its weight, has always been resilient, but the 2022 floods have hit this community so very hard, and I am delighted there is some light at the end of the tunnel for major community assets such as these and I thank all the locals who helped me represent them in the Parliament.”