Northern Victoria is a fantastic place to live, work and raise a family. We have room to grow with strong vibrant communities which we want to see continue to thrive and prosper into the future. Our Murray River region has significant natural and cultural heritage, a growing population, and is the heart of food production in Victoria. Local Government has an important role speaking up on behalf of our communities and Advocating in the interests of those who live and work in northern Victoria is the core business of the MRGC. Our councils are working together for the long term viability and prosperity of region. We aim to do this by engaging and building relationships with Ministers, local politicians, and other stakeholders, in an effort to influence the people who are developing, deciding on and implementing the policies, legislation and investment priorities that affect our communities and our region.
MRGC advocates on issues that are:
Regional –Issues that are shared across our region by all, or by a majority of our member councils and the communities within them, or issues that are specific to a single LGA but are of regional importance;
Local – Issues that are of importance to the people who live and work in our communities and that significantly impact their lives; and are
Appropriate to MRGC – Issues that are of a scale that are not more appropriately advocated for either by individual member councils or by another advocacy body such as a specific interest group or Statewide Local Government organisation.
MRGC KEY ADVOCACY PRIORITIES 2025
WATER REFORM AND BASIN PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
The Murray River Group of Councils (MRGC) believes that communities must be at the centre of the implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan and must be properly engaged, heard and responded to for the Plan to be a success. The MRGC supports the balanced and careful implementation of the remaining Basin Plan commitments to sustain the long-term viability of our regional economy and the wellbeing of our communities and to deliver the environmental outcomes that will protect and preserve our region’s ecosystems. Our members do not support the non-strategic, open market water purchase approach of the Commonwealth Government. In Victoria, these programs will place the long term viability of irrigated agriculture and thousands of jobs at risk. There is a better way. MRGC is urging the Commonwealth to work with us and the Victorian State Government to put communities at the heart of future water recovery. By taking a strategic approach, together we can achieve real environmental outcomes in our previous rivers and wetlands, and enable viable irrigation districts are sustainable and able to continue to adapt to a lower water future while still producing clean quality food right here in Victoria for all Australians. In 2025 MRGC will continue to engage with Federal and State Water Ministers and Departments to seek the best possible outcomes for our communities.
In 2023 MRGC campaigned against the Commonwealth’s changes to the Basin Plan which introduced the blunt instrument of Buy Backs and for a better way of implementing water reform with our #PushBackBuyBacks campaign
Further detail is contained in MRGC’s agreed WATER POSITION PAPER.
ENERGY
Northern Victoria has the climate, location and available suitable land for large scale renewable energy projects that, if built in the appropriate places and with engagement from our communities, can play a significant part in helping Victoria and Australia transition to a renewable energy future. Our region has billions of dollars worth of potential investment in renewable energy projects in the pipeline. MRGC is focused on ensuring that our communities benefit from the energy transition and that negative impacts are avoided where possible and mitigated appropriately. With transmission capacity a significant impediment to investment in MRGC has been advocating around renewables and transmission line upgrades since 2018. This advocacy has helped to improve the public consultation processes and the community investment requirements for the VNI-West project that were not present in previous projects of this type. MRGC will continue to engage with the Commonwealth and State Governments seeking the best outcomes for our communities.
FLOOD RECOVERY
2022 saw devastating floods across northern Victoria with some parts of our region experiencing record flood levels and unprecedented damage. Along with homes and businesses, many roads and other essential infrastructure our communities depend on were damaged. Unfortunately, over two years on from these events, member Councils are still working to secure funding to repair this damage. MRGC has been advocating with Commonwealth and State Ministers and the National Emergency Management Agency seeking a way forward to get these important funds flowing. MRGC will continue this work in 2025 along with efforts to learn from these experiences to improve the system for the future and to call for resilience funding that would enable infrastructure that our communities depend on to be built back better so future events can be withstood.
HOUSING
Housing affordability and availability are issues affecting almost all communities across Australia. While housing affordability in the MRGC region remains relatively better than in cities, lack of supply of family housing for purchase and highly constrained rental markets have become unwelcome features of northern Victorian housing markets. Population growth and a significant increase in land value for residential land across regional Victoria are drivers of insufficient supply. Housing market factors – some specific to the regions – are also affecting the market including the relatively higher and increasing costs for enabling infrastructure (water, sewerage, roads, drainage, telecommunications, electricity) in regional and rural areas, difficulties in securing trades and supplies in some smaller towns and the relatively smaller size of projects affecting developers appetite for building homes in our communities. Across the MRGC region, more homes are needed. Rental accommodation for the temporary workforce is required for the construction phases of coming projects in energy, mining and horticulture. Permanent family housing is also needed for the additional staff that many local businesses are currently seeking to recruit.
MRGC will continue to engage with and seek to partner with the Commonwealth and State Governments to develop solutions and investment to increase housing supply in our region.