DOUBLE DIP TRIPS
Ratepayers foot bill as city leaders fly to Canberra twice in three weeks to lobby the same people
GEELONG civic leaders will double up on lobbying trips to Canberra just weeks apart.
Geelong Council and lobby group G21 Geelong Region Alliance will attend both delegations and will meet many of the same politicians during each of the trips.
Geelong’s City Deal will lead the agenda of the first delegation from May 28-30, which will be led by G21 and attended by chief executives of each of the region’s councils and mayors from Gee- long, Queenscliff and the Surf Coast.
The second Canberra delegation, just weeks later, will include some of the same attendees and will focus on the City of Greater Geelong’s bid to bring Comcare to Geelong.
G21 chief executive Elaine Carbines said the annual advocacy missions were typically “very persuasive” in promoting the region’s most important projects to key politicians.
“We don’t expect — to be perfectly frank — to all of a sudden have the Prime Minister during our delegation saying ‘right, here’s the money’,” Ms Carbines said. “What we’re wanting to do is lay the case out strongly for him and his key ministers so there’s a little bit more pressure put on and a lit- tle more rationale so they can see the support in our region for the City Deal,” she said.
Ms Carbines will also attend the second Canberra delegation in June, this time led by the City of Greater Geelong with the sole purpose of advocating for the relocation of federal agency Comcare to Geelong.
“The Comcare delegation is timed to coincide with a House of Representatives Inquiry into the decentralisation of federal government agencies into regional cities,” City of Greater Geelong Acting Director Investment and Attraction Tim Ellis said.
“The Comcare delegation will focus entirely on Comcare and will meet with a range of stakeholders with an interest in the relocation of federal government agencies in order to articulate Geelong’s case to host Comcare offices.”
The Comcare delegation will include Deputy Mayor Peter Murrihy, TAC chief executive Joe Calafiore, Committee for Geelong chief executive Rebecca Casson and Ms Carbines. Mayor Bruce Harwood will not attend because he will be in Europe to meet with fellow UNESCO Creative Cities members.
Comcare, which oversees workplace health and safety for federal employees and employs more than 650 people across the country, is seen as a natural addition to Geelong’s burgeoning social insurance sector.
While the City of Greater Geelong did not say how much it expected the two delegations to cost the council, it noted all council representatives would fly economy class, while individual costs would be covered by each organisation in attendance. Council spent $1331.57 to send its chief executive on a similar delegation in September last year.
Both upcoming delegations expect to meet with the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, Minister for Regional Development John McVeigh, Minister for Regional Development and Cities Paul Fletcher and shadow spokesman for Innovation, In- dustry, Science and Research Kim Carr — among others.
The delegation double-up comes less than a year after a report was presented to State Parliament calling for Geelong’s legion of lobby groups to be merged to create a unified voice to advocate for the region.
In 2014, then Victorian Premier Denis Napthine warned of mixed messages coming from the region, saying “a number of spokespeople from Geelong are championing different projects”.