Government funding policies' impact on Mornington Peninsula's economic development.
Committee for Frankston & Mornington Peninsula
An independent advocacy group working for better long term outcomes for Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula.
The Committee for Mornington Peninsula has explored the Victorian State Government's regional and metropolitan funding policies' impact on Mornington Peninsula's economic development.
Our report highlights:
There are no metropolitan-specific funding programs from which the Mornington Peninsula receives significant Victorian Government funding.
Mornington Peninsula's metropolitan status renders the municipality ineligible for a significant pool of regional economic development support from the Victorian Government.
Economic Development
Access to government funding programs provides a local economy with the financial support required to reach its economic and social potential. Unfortunately, at the state government level, the Mornington Peninsula's metropolitan designation renders the municipality ineligible for a significant funding pool for regional economic development.
Before getting into state government funding, let's review Mornington Peninsula's economic and demographic profile and then explore a few variations between the metropolitan and regional Victorian taxes.?
The Victorian State Government has designated Mornington Peninsula as part of Metropolitan Melbourne. However, the Mornington Peninsula's demographic, socio-economic, and employment profiles align more closely to regional Victoria than metropolitan Melbourne. For example, the Peninsula experiences slow historical and projected population growth, an older age profile, lower-income levels, low unemployment, and a high job containment rate.
These are examples of some of the variations in?taxes:
Victorian State Government Funding
The tables below show the state government budget 2021-22 funding for regional and metropolitan areas. Regional municipalities will receive $7.86 billion of funding, while metropolitan municipalities will receive $22.16 billion in government expenditure. However, the per capita figures demonstrate that regional Victorian LGAs will receive 16% more than metropolitan municipalities, as demonstrated?below.
The Victorian State Government funding policies offer financial support programs to regional and metropolitan communities.
Metropolitan Funding
Contrasting conditions between the Peninsula and other metropolitan councils is likely the result of the Peninsula having comparatively less alignment to the policy objectives of the state government's $375 million Growing Suburbs Fund (GSF). Our population conditions are in stark contrast to most other metropolitan Melbourne councils experiencing surging population growth.
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Therefore, it's believed that a significant lack of alignment to the economic and low population growth conditions on the Peninsula has led to difficulty securing funding through the existing metropolitan programs. In addition, Mornington Peninsula had no specific investment in the two previous state budgets (2018/19 and 2019/20), signalling an ongoing trend of misalignment between our designation and access to state funding.
Even though our metropolitan taxes contribute to the GSF, the Mornington Peninsula Shire has struggled to receive funding for crucial infrastructure needs from the fund. This is understandable because the GSF delivers critical local community infrastructure to fast-growing outer suburbs, thus placing our municipality at a significant disadvantage.
Regional Funding
Due to Mornington Peninsula's metropolitan designation, the municipality's local businesses, community organisations, and Council are ineligible for regional development funding programs administered by Regional Development Victoria (RDV).
The RDV states, "Our work includes enabling businesses to invest to consolidate and grow jobs, strengthen regional economies and enrich the social fabric of Victoria's regional cities and towns."
The RDV's major funding programs have a combined worth of $2.39 billion of state government investment in regional economic development in the last twenty years.
However, the Mornington Peninsula?cannot access these programs due to our designation as metropolitan. These limitations are likely to have hindered the growth of the industries that align strongly with a number of the policy objectives for regional funding programs, like our region's tourism and agriculture industries.
Summary
This budget analysis highlights that the current lack of state government expenditure for the region is likely to be partially driven by a misalignment of the objectives of the metropolitan funding programs. However, we understand that numerous factors influence budget expenditure.
With a clear trend of minor to no access to metropolitan funding, a regional designation would unlock access to a significant pool of RDV state funding programs. This access could significantly benefit the Peninsula's tourism and agriculture industries with no apparent losses.
In addition, funding could stimulate additional public sector investment across vital economic industries, potentially catalysing private sector investment within the municipality and supporting local jobs
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Research was conducted by Urban Enterprise as commissioned by the Committee for Mornington Peninsula in partnership with Australian Unity.
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