Guy: Make Geelong metro
Opposition Leader says city set to be major urban centre
GEELONG could be developed into Victoria’s second major metropolitan area, under a vision put forward by state Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.
Mr Guy shared his view in an online forum hosted by Geelong’s Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday afternoon, highlighting the city’s economic potential and booming population.
“I think the best thing for Geelong is an attitude change in government,” he said.
Mr Guy said the city had all the makings of a major urban centre.
“(I hear talk that) Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo are regional cities. I kind of baulk at that because with respect to other centres, you’re not a regional centre,” Mr Guy said.
“A regional centre is like Wagga or Ballarat or Toowoomba. Geelong is bigger than that.”
Mr Guy also echoed the importance of better linking the two city centres through improved public transport infrastructure.
“(We need to think of) Victoria as having two major urban centres, two major CBDs, Melbourne and Geelong,” he said.
“We need to think about linking our two major CBDs, Geelong and Melbourne.”
Before the 2018 state election the Opposition pledged to slash Melbourne-Geelong commute times to just 32 minutes in a fast rail plan costing up to $19bn.
But the plan attracted scepticism from the state government, who criticised the lack of detail and cast doubt over the four year timeline.
“We are now seeing that the proposal is unravelling question by question,” then-public transport minister Jacinta Allan said at the time.
“There is little detail. He (Mr Guy) can’t answer simple questions about this proposal.”
The state government’s current $4bn pledge for stage one of a faster rail corridor between the two cities will take 15 minutes off travel time to Geelong.
Mr Guy said he wanted to further encourage big business to have a Victorian presence outside of Melbourne in a city such as Geelong.
“Geelong is a metropolitan centre, it’s twice the size of Darwin and bigger than a place like Hobart,” he said.
During the Q&A session, Mr Guy also highlighted the importance of increased mental health personnel and training and encouraging small business in the aftermath of the state’s successive Covid lockdowns.
“We know mental health is going to be the biggest challenge over the next years,” Mr Guy said.
He said other important facets of improving mental health were reopening measures such as getting people back into the office, putting life back into Melbourne and Geelong’s city centres and kids back to the classroom.
“It’s about recovering from where we are and rebuilding our economy,” he said.