Business owners shared their stories of a difficult two years and discussed regional investment and tax strain on local businesses at the Wine X Sam meeting, which was part of a regional budget tour.
According to Mr Rowswell, Victoria is the highest taxed state in the nation.
He spoke of his ideological preference for private investment and free markets as a way of developing regional economies in response to the alleged lack of investment from the state government.
“State government is so focused on their big build that they have lost focus on everything else,” he said.
Mr Rowswell believes the state government is ‘addicted to taxes’ and fosters a ‘culture of waste’ in its capital works projects.
“(The government is) Paying $10m in interest on the state’s debt every single day,” he said.
“This money could transform regional projects and alleviate many of the issues we’ve heard about today.”
However, a state government spokesperson, who was not present on the day, disagreed with these claims.
The spokesperson said the state government has invested an average of $4.5 billion in regional Victoria in every budget for a total of $36 billion in regional Victoria in total since 2015.
“That's two-and-a-half times the rate of the previous Coalition government,” the spokesperson said.
“Since 2017, we’ve progressively cut the rate of payroll tax payable by regional businesses to one quarter of that paid in metropolitan Melbourne — this is benefiting 5500 businesses every week.
“Overall, Victoria is not a high revenue-taking state. Per person, Victoria takes in the least amount of revenue of all the states and territories.”
A large portion of the discussion last Thursday focused on making better provisions for private investment.
Local business owner and Go Seymour president Stuart Locke was at the meeting and said that as a peri-urban growth centre, Seymour needed big bones for surrounding towns to flourish.
“People just get on with it and I think, unfortunately, that is the key message here. We are just getting on with it, but wouldn’t it be nice to actually have someone help our community and our region out with some of the things we need?” he said.
“We are a large hub type centre for our region. We are the big sister with no town hall, centre or community resources.”
Mr Locke ended the session by thanking the ministers for their time and expressing hope that should they come to power, the presence and interest they showed in the town would continue.
Mr Rowswell and Ms Cleeland agreed they would welcome the opportunity for discussion with upper house MPs that represent the area.
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