Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell is pursuing support of his five-year plan from the region’s councils, with the local parliamentarian presenting it at Monday night’s Grant District Council meeting.
The Future Mount Gambier plan was released just over a month ago and outlines Mr Bell’s ambition to secure at least $85m of state taxpayer funding for the region, with the funds going towards 17 areas of action.
It comes after local parliamentarians, including Mr Bell and Clare Scriven MLC, and councillors alleged the Limestone Coast was ignored in the 2021-22 State Budget.
With the plan envisioned as a working document to be added to over time, the current areas of action include aiming to secure $20m over four years for forestry future initiatives and $10m over four years for an affordable housing initiative.
He’s described it as the seat of Mount Gambier’s five-year strategy and has presented it to the leaders of South Australia’s major political parties.
After meeting with Premier Steven Marshall, Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas, SA Best’s Frank Pangalo and The Greens, Mr Bell attended the council meeting in a bid to secure grassroots support of the plan.
Mr Bell appeared to secure unanimous support from councillors, but several made suggestions for areas of action that must be included in the next iteration of the plan.
These included having agriculture and disability services added as areas of action and having a greater amount of funding put to the arts.
The latter call came from Councillor Gavin Clarke, a local artist and musician and former local candidate for The Greens.
While Cr Clarke was glad to see an ambition for funding to be allocated to the arts in Mr Bell’s plans, he claimed the half a million aimed to be provided to the sector fell short of its actual value.
“$500,000 compared to $10m for sports? It’s indicative of what is happening to the arts across the country,” Cr Clarke said.
“They are critically under-valued.”
Mr Bell said that paediatrics and greater medical services to the region had been called for separately.
Furthermore, during discussion with councillors he again revealed his frustration at this year’s State Budget, which did not offer any new announcements for the seat of Mount Gambier.
“I’m not going to pull any punches: We have been overlooked and I need to take some responsibility for that,” Mr Bell said.
Cr Megan Dukalskis requested Mr Bell ask Premier Marshall how much of the seat of Mount Gambier’s revenue for SA was put back into the region as part of the year’s State Budget.
Mr Bell will continue rallying for support of the five-year plan on Friday at a launch event for his Future Mount Gambier plan.
