The mayors of seven northern Victorian councils are locked in a debate with the Victorian Government over how a $100 million dollar-plus fund for rural communities is distributed.

The money comes from the Commonwealth Government but will be distributed through the states to rural communities.

The Basin Sustainable Communities Fund is intended to support communities negatively impacted by water buybacks.

In a united stand, the Murray River Group of Councils (MRGC) and Greater Shepparton City Council are calling for genuine partnership with local communities to get the investment right.

The group is lobbying Water Minister Harriet Shing and Agriculture Minister Michaela Settle.

The Commonwealth established the Sustainable Communities Fund to help communities adjust to the social and economic impacts of buybacks under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

The fund is intended to support community resilience, economic diversification and locally-led transition through place-based investment and genuine co-design with local communities.

The MRGC emphasises that it welcomes Victoria’s decision to accept the funding and is not seeking to delay investment. They are seeking to improve it.

The mayors of the seven councils have called on the Victorian Government to suspend the current funding negotiations and establish a collaborative planning process with local government to develop a tailored implementation plan for each Basin municipality.

The councils cover over one fifth of the state and represent some 240,000 Victorians. The region produces over $10 billion in food production annually with one in four people employed in agriculture or food manufacturing.

The Commonwealth’s water buybacks have so far resulted in the loss of nearly 2000 jobs and up to $550 million in farm gate losses annually. The MRGC points out that these impacts have been unevenly distributed and are cumulative, affecting different communities in different ways.

Chair of the Murray River Group of Councils Stuart King said local government stood ready to work alongside the Victorian Government, to deliver the best possible outcomes for the region from this once-in-a-generation investment.

"Every one of our communities has been affected differently by water recovery. Each has its own industries, strengths and opportunities. That is why we need to co-design individual responses.

"Local government understands its communities best of all the levels of government. We know where the opportunities exist, where the challenges lie and what investments will deliver meaningful long-term economic and social benefits," Cr King said.

The councils are proposing a collaborative process to assess the impacts of water recovery in each municipality and identify the highest-value local investment opportunities before developing tailored implementation plans for each community.

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Thursday, 21st September 2028

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