Time for state to deliver
THURSDAY, May 20, looms as D-Day for Geelong council’s hopes to build its $61.6m Northern Aquatic and Community Hub (NACH).
The “generational project” is expected to deliver $111m of preventive health benefits in its first decade and has widespread support from key city figures.
When state Treasurer Tim Pallas unveils his budget about 1pm on Thursday, the community will know whether it is likely to be built, or forever languish as a thought bubble.
This long-awaited “priority project” on the Waterworld site in Norlane is not just a shiny new pool. It has a gym, 25m pool, hydrotherapy pool, water play and learn-to-swim space, plus a 400-person multipurpose community hall, health consulting suites and public meeting rooms.
It’s an investment in the health and wellbeing of Geelong’s northern suburbs.
It’s also help where help is most needed, in the middle of where statistics show one of Australia’s most disadvantaged populations lives.
More than anything, it would be proof that those in power care about helping our northern suburbs.
As it stands, neither the state nor federal governments have stumped up a single dollar for the project.
Geelong council budgeted $23m to the project for the 2022-23 financial year, having already spent about $2.2m on planning and designs to make it “shovel ready” and to better attract government funding.
It is hoping the state government will kick in about
$20m, with Lara Labor MP John Eren claiming he had lobbied internally for funding to be included in the budget.
Regional Development Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, in town on Friday, said the project was under “active consideration” for funding.
“There’s many benefits outlined in the project proposal that would serve the people of this community well,” she said.
Asked to detail the community benefit, Ms Thomas said it was “pretty obvious” but did not elaborate.
When acting Premier James Merlino came to Geelong on Tuesday to spruik a different funding announcement, he was caught off guard when asked about the NACH — a project he was unaware of.
Geelong council this year voted to ask the federal government
to assign $8.26m to the project through the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Fund (LRCIF) and apply for $10m from its Building Better Regions Fund.
The LRCIF funding is already allocated to the council, which must gain approval from the federal government to use it on the NACH — and gain a two-year extension.
Victorian Liberal senator
Sarah Henderson described the NACH as a “top priority project”, and said she would do everything she could to advocate for funding — so there’s realistic hope federal funding will eventuate.
On Thursday, more than seven years after the project was first mentioned, Geelong will find out whether the NACH is really supported by the state government.