Budget centre of attention

AT last there is some more good news on the Geelong convention centre front with yesterday’s confirmation that the project will be considered as part of the 2017-18 state Budget.

That’s still some way short of breaking ground on the development, but nothing about this protracted project has ever been quick.

Local advocates have been fighting for more than 20 years to bring the centre to fruition.

It’s been more than a year since Bellarine MP Lisa Neville mysteriously alluded to “some good news on the horizon” about the proposal, and some seven months since Premier Daniel Andrews announced the Deakin University waterfront campus car park as the site of the project.

Almost as significant as yesterday’s announcement is the fact that the project has support from both sides of politics.

While the Opposition claims the Government is “is not being honest with Geelong” by refusing to release its business case for the centre, it is joining local business leaders by spruiking the economic benefits of a convention centre in Geelong.

And that bottom line is at the heart of this issue.

A convention centre on the scale being envisaged — capacity for 1000 people, 3000 sq m of exhibition space, banquet facilities, meeting rooms, business centre and retail outlets — is not just something to see by people already in Geelong, it is the means by which to attract more people here.

It would also build on the city’s corporate pulling power that has already lured a number of highprofile agencies to set up shop here.

All this makes good business sense for everyone. It can only be hoped that the next step in the convention centre is not as slow as the journey thus far.