Government Intervention is Needed for the Mornington Peninsula to Prosper

Mornington Peninsula's metropolitan Melbourne classification negatively impacts the region.

Our study assessed the economic and social impacts of the Mornington Peninsula's current designation as part of metropolitan Melbourne. The findings indicate that the current economic disadvantage linked to the Peninsula's designation is significant across a wide range of impact areas.

Moreover, this misalignment links directly to the current state government metropolitan classification, resulting in high levels of taxation and charges with little to no program eligibility and funding opportunities to support the needs of our economy and community. As a result, the Peninsula's metropolitan status restricts economic growth and prosperity for local businesses, residents and the community.

Government intervention is required to address this disadvantage and begin unwinding the funding, taxation and charges inequities for the Mornington Peninsula.

Response Options

Reclassifying the Mornington Peninsula from a metropolitan to a regional municipality through Victorian legislation is one option to address the Peninsula's economic disadvantage.

However, other options include:

·??????Creating new state government funding programs accessible to the Peninsula;

·??????Granting the Peninsula access to select existing regional funding programs;

·??????Changing particular policy settings on taxation and charges to enable business growth; and

·??????Collaborating with community and council to advocate government on key local project funding needs.

Study Background

The Committee for Mornington Peninsula, along with Australian Unity, commissioned a study to identify the social and economic implications associated with the Mornington Peninsula's current designation and whether a regional designation would derive a net benefit for the local community and economy. The study also looked to understand whether Mornington Peninsula aligns more with the characteristics of a metropolitan or a regional municipality.

Although the Mornington Peninsula has technically been considered part of Greater Melbourne for over 30 years, the Peninsula has special character and importance with a role that is distinct from and complementary to metropolitan Melbourne and designated growth areas.

The Mornington Peninsula's municipality possesses many regional characteristics despite the metropolitan designation. This misalignment has resulted in growing community concern regarding the economic and social disadvantages experienced on the Mornington Peninsula due to the current designation, which has reached high levels during the pandemic.

In addition, the Morning Peninsula Shire is seeking a peri-regional designation, although this classification does not currently exist. Therefore, it isn't easy to accurately assess its feasibility, the political appetite for creating a unique classification of this nature, and whether a novel peri-regional designation would result in immediate eligibility and alignment of the Mornington Peninsula to both metropolitan and regional government funding programs. However, it does validate that the issues we've highlighted need to be addressed by the State and Federal Governments.

Benchmarking

The Mornington Peninsula has more similarities with regional Victoria, particularly concerning its demographic and socio-economic profile when benchmarked against regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne, as demonstrated in this sliding scale model.

Study Summary

Based on the economic and social impacts assessed in the study, our metropolitan classification results in a broad range of significant disadvantages for the local economy and community aligned to these key areas:

·??????Taxation & Charges

·??????Economic Development

·??????Transport & Infrastructure

·??????Health & Education

·??????Culture, Community & Recreation

·??????COVID-19, Regulations & Planning

Overall, the optimal classification based on our needs in each impact area is regional except for regulations and planning, which are likely to make a neutral or negligible difference.

In addition, the impact assessment also highlighted that the Mornington Peninsula experiences similar challenges associated with regional areas and would have better alignment with government funding programs designed to address issues typical of regional areas.

Our legal advice indicates that a regional designation could be achieved whilst retaining existing protection afforded to the Peninsula's Green Wedge Zone in the Shire.

And, even though the Peninsula is part of metropolitan Melbourne, we do not benefit from being associated with the metropolitan area, primarily due to funding competition with other metropolitan areas and our location and distance to Melbourne.

These factors compound to create substantial economic and social disadvantages for residents and businesses on the Peninsula.

Conclusion

Significant economic and social disadvantages are linked to the Mornington Peninsula's metropolitan designation. Across a wide range of impact areas, the Peninsula's metropolitan status hinders economic growth and prosperity for local businesses, residents and the community.

As the Peninsula recovers from the economic and social effects of the pandemic restrictions, it is time to provide local businesses and communities with the best possible policy and funding settings to recover.

Please help us raise awareness on these issues leading up to the Victorian election later this year.

o??Offer your support by becoming a member of the Committee for Mornington Peninsula - https://www.committeeformp.com.au/become-a-member/

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o??Visit our webpage to sign up for further updates and to access the full report to learn more