On the ground, the bureaucrats are shuffling the papers.

The airport upgrade comprises three stages - the first being the runway extension.

The extension is currently impossible because the access road to the airport cuts right through it.

I know, it's hard to believe.

So, despite having $5 million funding from the federal government and matching funding from the City of Ballarat for Stage 1, it won't happen, can't happen, until a new access road is created.

It's a Yes Minister episode in the making; cart first, horse second.

However, the solution is easy.

It just needs the bureaucrats in Development Victoria to do something, like stop shuffling the paper.

They need to fund the extension of Liberator Drive.

It is a main access road in the Ballarat West Employment Zone (BWEZ) and for just $2 million it could become the new airport access.

The airport users don't want a fancy road costing upwards of $15 million, they just want a road, a dirt one, for $2 million.

That decision would overnight result in a $20 million development by one of the users. And that's just a start. If only we could get a start.

I raised the issue in the Victorian Parliament earlier this year - urging the enabling funding.

Airport history is a fickle one in Australia, and many vehemently argue against the role of local councils in airport ownership or management.

In truth, it's not a neat fit, but it's what we've got.

I appreciate the role the City of Ballarat has played in finally getting the development plans to this point.

But this cannot be a multi-generational project.

Every year that passes simply ratchets up the costs.

Unlike planes, that go up and down, airport budgets only seem to rise and rise.

The cost of Stage 1 is $13 million, and the cost of the full project is about $32 million.

It's a big bill. But these numbers aren't new. The city has spent years looking at them and looking at them and looking at them.

In other regional cities, they have looked and acted. Bendigo - Ballarat's nemesis - was brave and bold in its airport decisions.

Subsidies exist - but so do the benefits.

A multi-generational approach will simply leave Ballarat behind. This is more apparent now, as thousands of people are dashing to see the 'Big Smoke' in their rear-view mirrors.

Moving people is the obvious component of airport activity, but it is just one - there is stratospheric growth in the aeronautical industry.

It is, indeed, the size of the job that has forced the Ballarat project to be broken down into smaller components - each more attractive as fundable, affordable bits of the necessary jigsaw.

That said, it's not as if the Victorian government is loath to spend money where it likes.

For $20 million, the state got an inquiry into the hotel quarantine bungle last year that cost 801 lives.

Three-quarters of that money went directly to lawyers to represent government ministers, departments and the premier.

Despite millions of dollars of prodding, not one could remember the most important answer to the most critical question being asked; who made the decision to put security guards in charge of the program?

It tore up a $1.3 billion contract to stop the building of the East West Link.

When the premier declared the contract 'wasn't worth the paper it was written on', he was, quite simply $1.3 billion wrong.

Locally, more than $100 million has been spent on the GovHub. Even the July 2020 public tender for artworks for the ground floor hall was $60,000 plus GST.

I raise these examples to say this - Governments can make things happen, or not happen, if they want to.

Governments can close their eyes to reality. Or block their ears.

But just imagine what $1.3 billion could do for the Ballarat Airport. Or even $20 million?

I have watched this government brutally destroy and ignore individuals, families and private industry - and all its jobs - for the past 18 months.

The airport segment of Ballarat's potential cannot be ignored any longer.

Those businesses that invest in the airport currently are brave, bold, cutting edge, global.

Few may appreciate the very genuine opportunities that lay in waiting for the Ballarat Airport. Moorabbin Airport, for example, looks longingly in Ballarat's direction.

Yes - progress costs money.

But that hasn't impeded arguments for sporting grounds and infrastructure in this city.

They were argued for on the basis of need and broad social benefit.

Those arguments apply in equal measure to the airport.

From little acorns big oaks grow.