Council chiefs react to the CommGames cancellation

LGPro finds out what regional and rural councils have lost (but stand to gain) from the Commonwealth Games cancellation from Greater Shepparton City Council’s Peter Harriott and Yarriambiack Shire Council’s Tammy Smith.

The Premier recently announced the Commonwealth Games would not be going ahead, claiming cost blowouts in the billions. At the same time, he announced new and redirected funding for housing, tourism, and sport to the tune of 2 billion dollars.

LGPro caught up with chief executives from both regional and rural councils to find out how this is affecting their organisations.

You can listen to this article on the LGProcast – LGPro’s podcast for local government decision makers.

Peter Harriott is the CEO of Greater Shepparton City Council, but also represents Shepparton at Regional Cities Victoria –an alliance of 10 regional Victorian cities that represent the collective interest of the regions.

The Commonwealth Games story began six years ago for Shepparton when it was marked as one of the five hubs planned to host the event. The council has been planning and investing ever since.

“We were planning for BMX events and time trial events on the road, we were putting various staff in place, we were liaising with the organising authority, we were getting facilities organised – we were all set to go,” explains Peter.

To more recent history, Peter recalled his reaction to the announcement of the cancellation.

“We were not prepared for the announcement, we didn’t expect the announcement, and we’d had recent meetings with key players, and we thought the Games was proceeding. When we received the announcement … we were most disappointed, but we’re looking at what the opportunities are going forward now.”

While regional councils course-correct following the news, the simultaneous announcement of new and redirected funding offers new opportunities.

“The basis of running the Games in the region was to change the focus from large expenditure in metropolitan Melbourne to expenditure in the regions, and the 2.6 billion dollars was a fantastic announcement for that to happen,” said Peter.

“So now that the Games have been cancelled it is still so important that similar investment is made and similar opportunities are provided for regional Victoria. So a billion dollars for affordable housing – that’s critical. Per head of population, Shepparton has the largest affordable housing crisis in the state.”

With money also set aside for committed sports infrastructure associated with the Games, Peter sees an opportunity for flexibility.

“We’d probably ask for a bit of a review of that, and say that now that infrastructure that was specifically for Games components that is not going to happen, there should be a more equitable distribution of that 550 million.”

As a predominantly regionally-focused event, the redirection of funds from the Games is a particular opportunity now for rural councils. CEO of Yarriambiack Shire Council and Treasurer of Rural Councils Victoria, Tammy Smith gave LGPro the rural perspective.

“We really weren’t going to be benefiting, as such, from the Commonwealth Games being held in regional areas,” Tammy explains. “The big things that we were working on were the Legacy items. We were working on a regional partnership level, putting in for relocatable housing that could be redistributed out into the regions and rural areas.”

“The one billion dollar housing fund for the 1,300 new social and affordable homes in rural and regional Victoria – for us at Yarriambiack, that’s a huge benefit, and I know it’s a huge benefit for our other rural councils.

“We have effectively four sites ready to go, ready to pitch for social and affordable housing.”

And as noted earlier, flexibility is the key to getting the best bang for buck moving forward, as Tammy explains.

“Probably the key thing for the housing though, rural areas need more flexibility and ideally we need affordable housing because social housing can be quite limited with the tenants that you can put into those homes, where affordable housing has so much more flexibility for us. It potentially can be utilised for skilled workers or to attract and retain new migrants to the region.”

Funding opportunities are much broader under the changes, meaning more councils are eligible for money for a wider range of projects.

Regional councils – including those that were set to benefit from the Commonwealth Games – might also have more flexible access to funding depending on what gets deemed eligible by the State Government.

Peter pointed out sporting infrastructure projects that could have positively impacted the community but were not eligible for funding under the auspices of the Commonwealth Games. Under redirected funding, these could be given a second life, for example.

So how should councils be approaching the State Government to capitalise on this potential?

“I think we all need to be getting ready and planning for the opportunities that are going to arise from this,” Tammy said.

“But I would probably be saying to the Government that it is really important for them to … work with us as a committee because we’re in a prime position to actually help them understand ... how it can benefit regional and rural communities. It would help the Government understand some of the challenges that rural councils face.”

And Peter is optimistic: “I think we’ll be listened to, and I’m quite hopeful that will lead to some really good results, not only for our council but for many other regional and rural councils throughout Victoria.”