By XAVIER SMERDON AND NATALIE GALLENTI
MELBOURNE’S West has a bright future that residents should be proud of, according to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Bill Shorten.
Mr Shorten helped launch a strategic plan for the Western Suburbs, the Western Agenda, last week.
The agenda was created by advocacy group LeadWest and painted a positive picture of the West’s future.
Mr Shorten, who is also the Member for Maribyrnong, told Star there were “a lot worse areas than the western suburbs”.
“The reality is that our population in the West is growing twice as fast as the rest of Victoria – 27 in every 200 people live in our suburbs, our municipalities,” Mr Shorten said.
“That all smacks to me of opportunity. People see good things for them, their lives, their families and their children here.”
Mr Shorten said the biggest challenge for the West was “liveability”.
“It’s up to leadership to ensure that in the path of growth we don’t lose liveability,” he said.
“For a very long time people have been positive about the West and this report also reminds us there is much more to be positive about the community in which we live than there is to be negative.”
Chair of LeadWest, Barry Harvey, said that if there was only one word to describe the West it would be “growth”.
“I use it in the positive sense, ‘growth’ meaning movement toward full potential,” Mr Harvey said.
The unveiling of the strategic plan came in the wake of the LeadWest Mayors of Melbourne’s West Delegation to Canberra last month.
Melton Mayor Kathy Majdlik and Chief Executive Kelvin Tori travelled to Parliament House to meet with the Prime Minister, federal ministers and shadow ministers as part of the delegation.
They joined the mayors and CEOs from five other local government areas to discuss key issues affecting the western region of Melbourne.
Cr Majdlik said the meetings were productive with important discussions held around priority areas of health, education, jobs and infrastructure.
“The delegation was a fantastic opportunity to meet one-on-one with decision makers and lobby for key items of regional infrastructure and services for one of the fastest growing regions in Australia,” Cr Majdlik said.
“As a result of discussions I am confident the position of the West has been firmly placed before both the government and opposition as well as key policy makers leading into the upcoming election.”
For a copy of the Western Agenda visit www.leadwest.com.au
