WEST Wimmera Shire is among other rural municipalities that will support a new Buloke Shire campaign to establish minimum service levels in rural areas.
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Buloke council presented a proposal at the Municipal Association of Victoria state council meeting last month, where 84 per cent of members voted in favour of supporting the initiative.
West Wimmera Mayor Annette Jones said the campaign's goal was to seek agreement from state and federal government that all Victorians, including residents in small rural shires, were worthy of a specific minimum set of service levels.
"The campaign's catch cry is equal services for rural people," she said.
The Rural Living campaign includes the Buloke, Macedon Ranges, South Gippsland, Wellington, Central Goldfields, West Wimmera and Mt Alexander shires, along with Latrobe, Horsham, Mildura and Bendigo city councils.
"I'm very pleased to see the Municipal Association of Victoria and other municipalities have thrown its support behind rural living," Cr Jones said.
"For every council that joins the campaign, we are a step closer to achieving our goals as a united group that is concerned about the level of services in rural Victoria."
Cr Jones said a social media campaign had also attracted a high level of interest from the community.
"The campaign is getting fantastic support from people living in rural communities, because they are the ones who are missing out on essential services such as youth, library, childcare and community transport," she said.
"These are services that their city counterparts take for granted.
"The campaign is about state and federal governments recognising the inequality and addressing it."
The campaign also encourages more people to consider moving to regional areas and drive the productivity and growth of vital agricultural and rural industries.
"Rural living is not a 'poor me' campaign, this is all about making sure we can offer a sustainable and basic level of services so that people want to stay, invest and become part of the many beautiful regional areas of Victoria," Cr Jones said.