The question the Ballarat community might ask of the state and federal governments is not which projects they fund for the development of the city but how better our community might be able to sell a united plan for growth.
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The feeling that this week’s state budget was a let-down is primarily symptomatic of the changes in information flow. In another, slightly less digital age, governments would “leak” or “drop” merely a single major budget announcement a day prior to its unveiling. These days, governments on all levels spend days, sometimes weeks, softening up the electorate with the very good, or very bad, elements of their budgets dependent on the political requirements.
In Ballarat, the big-ticket items identified in the state government’s own budget press releases were primarily projects or plans which had already been announced or that had already been the subject of previous solid commitment.
That’s not under-selling the importance of the announcements. It does serve to emphasise how important perceptions are.
The City of Ballarat, Committee for Ballarat, Commerce Ballarat, the Australian Industry Group, VECCI, the media and sporting groups among many have all espoused great plans for growing the city and put forward ideas and opportunities which in themselves would be entirely worthwhile in government consideration.
The problem is, in a time where deficits are common and competition for funding streams at all-time highs, governments are becoming more discerning about how they spend.
It means that having a priority list of projects is important.
To get to the point, could anyone in Ballarat say definitively which is our number one project requiring federal or state funding?
To its credit the Committee for Ballarat, which provides the broadest representation of the community – has developed an action plan which details significant priorities for the city from a community-building perspective.
Given that the bodies responsible for lobbying government on behalf of the city generally have similar visions, expectations and an undoubted record of success in obtaining funding when the priority planets align – such as growth for jobs and communities in Ballarat’s west – the question needs to be asked about whether even further definition of projects within the city’s priorities is required.
