City of Ballarat chief executive Justine Linley is ramping up the heat on the state government ahead of its imminent jobs announcement, saying the city requires at least 1000 public sector jobs.
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While the city already houses some public servants from departments such as the Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning, the government has indicated more jobs will be coming.
Ms Linley said while Ballarat was experiencing healthy population growth of 2.1 per cent per annum, a boost to the city’s high-paid professional workforce was pivotal to ensure continued prosperity in the city.
“This council...is very firmly fixed on the idea we need 1000 government jobs in our CBD,” Ms Linley said.
“We need to see government services and government jobs expanded here, strong knowledge-economy jobs that bring good pay packets and bring professionals into the CBD.”
Speaking to The Courier last week Regional Development Minister Jaala Pulford said a plan to unveil a public service jobs shift to Ballarat would be unveiled “in the coming weeks”, but fell short of providing a specific date.
“I don’t want to give you a specific date but suffice to say the government is well advanced in its thinking and planning on these issues and we hope to have an announcement not too far away at all,” Ms Pulford said.
The upcoming announcement comes after a long-running debate around public sector employment in Ballarat which peaked at the 2014 election when the incumbent Coalition government pledged to shift the VicRoads headquarters to the city from Kew, bringing with as many as 560 new jobs.
The pledge was not matched by the then-Labor opposition, however Premier Daniel Andrews has regularly hinted at a jobs package for the city during his two years in the top job.
Ms Linley said the City of Ballarat aimed to see 1000 new jobs added to the Ballarat economy each year, but was “really focused on making sure we get those good quality jobs”.
The calls come after the peak body for the state’s 10 largest shires outside of metropolitan Melbourne issued its wish list for funding in the upcoming 2017/18 state budget.
Regional Cities Victoria, which is made up of representatives from Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Horsham, Latrobe, Mildura, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Warrnambool and Wodonga municipalities called on the government an additional $100 million in the regions for jobs and liveability.
The body is also calling on the additional funds generated by the $970 million lease of the Port of Melbourne to be prioritised for regional infrastructure projects.
Ms Linley said the City of Ballarat was strongly behind the push for further infrastructure spending in the regions as it tended to have a more noticeable and immediate impact than in metropolitan areas.
“In order for us to continue to have growth and not get into the red zone we need to make sure the infrastructure is there for jobs to be created by the private sector, not just the public sector,” Ms Linley said.
