FOCUS group meetings in the next few months will progress ideas generated from the second Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Assembly.
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The assembly in Horsham in August allowed people from various sectors to highlight issues and ideas with state government representatives, including Premier Daniel Andrews.
About 200 people attended the event to discuss ideas across seven focus areas: health; environment and energy; education; infrastructure; social welfare, economic development; and transport.
The partnership has released its summary report from the event, highlighting some of the key themes and outlining its next steps.
Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership chairman David Jochinke said the group would now filter and review priorities identified on the night.
He said these included a need to focus on region-wide preventive health programs; ensuring appropriate training was available to maintain and develop the region’s skilled workforce; and continuing to advocate for improved mobile and digital connectivity.
“Some of the emerging ideas that were heard also included the need for better planning and integration of service delivery across all sectors; continued lobbying for improved transport connectivity, including funding for a business case for the return of passenger rail services to Horsham; and simplifying land use and planning complexities that stifle development and industry,” he said.
Developing the region’s tourism potential and improving roads were also high on the priority list.
Mr Jochinke said though the 2017 assembly was finished, the partnership was keen to continue ongoing community consultation and engagement.
“With that in mind, our engage page will be open for further comment,” he said.
“We encourage people to let us know their thoughts and ideas for the region.
“Over the course of the next few months, we will look to host further focus groups and working teams to sharpen ideas, progress and identify new priorities, and to also hear from groups we feel have been absent from our conversation to date.
“Our role is to take the messages and learnings from our 2017 assembly, distill them down into a handful of tangible priorities from the region, and present them to the Rural and Regional Ministerial Committee later this year.”
Mr Jochinke said people could visit https://engage.vic.gov.au/wimmera-southern-mallee/ or email wimmerasouthernmallee.partnership@rdv.vic.gov.au to share their ideas.