ONE Gippsland Chair Cr Nathan Hersey and South Gippsland Shire Council CEO Allison Jones travelled to Canberra last week for a jam-packed day of meetings as representatives of One Gippsland, continuing the group’s advocacy for the region on key national issues.
While in the nation’s capital, the delegation met with Member for Gippsland Darren Chester, Member for Monash Mary Aldred, and Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy and Assistant Minister for Emergency Management Josh Wilson to discuss priorities for Gippsland’s growth, resilience and sustainability.
They also held meetings with representatives from the offices of Communications Minister Anika Wells, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen, Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell, and the office of the Chair of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, Josh Burns.
“It was a good visit, with a good lot of meetings,” Cr Hersey said on Monday from Spain. “Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy and Assistant Minister for Emergency Management Josh Wilson indicated that he was interested in visiting Gippsland early next year, and he appreciates Gippsland’s fairly welcoming approach to offshore wind.”
Cr Hersey will now work with Ms Jones to formally invite Assistant Minister Wilson to the region.
Disaster resilience was another hot topic discussed with Cr Hersey, highlighting the need not just for improved funding but betterment.
“We need funding for betterment. There is no point rebuilding things the same as it was, only to have them destroyed again [during the next disaster]. However, that is how current funding works; it doesn’t make sense when you are trying to mitigate risk,” Cr Hersey said. “It’s not asking for more necessarily, but making better for the future.”
The Assistant Minister agreed that there were scenarios that have demonstrated that work needs to be done in this space.
Separately, Cr Hersey and Ms Jones also received acknowledgment at a federal level that work needs to be done to provide better coverage in Gippsland on telecommunications, both the day-to-day and emergency capabilities.
“Previous conversations with communications ministers have focused on new technologies, and as recent outages have demonstrated, there have to be better backups, particularly in times of emergencies.”
The delegation also met with Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Tony Mahar to discuss the future of regional energy projects and infrastructure investment.
