Guy joins call for Comcare

STATE Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has backed his local lieutenant Andrew Katos in support of the federal agency Comcare relocating to Geelong.

Mr Guy joins Mr Katos and Opposition planning spokesman David Davis calling for Comcare to come on down, as well as a chorus of supporters from other government agen- cies, such as TAC and WorkSafe and key federal figures.

“We support the relocation of Comcare to Geelong and will continue to work to make this happen, just as the Liberal Nationals did to bring the NDIS jobs to the region,” he said yesterday.

Comcare, which covers workplace health and safety for Federal Government employees, would join fellow Commonwealth agencies the National Disability Insurance Agency and Australian Bureau of Statistics in calling Geelong home.

Mr Guy said investigating how regional centres such as Geelong would be given the tools to succeed and bear the brunt of Victoria’s growing population was a major aspect of the work being carried out by the Coalition’s population policy taskforce.

“This is why we established the population policy taskforce to plan for decentralising population growth through more jobs and better regional infrastructure and services,” he said.

“Daniel Andrews doesn’t have a jobs plan for Geelong or a commitment to support regional growth.”

Speaking to Geelong advocates at Parliament House last week, South Barwon MP Mr Katos said Comcare could be based in Geelong and the state needed to play a bigger role lobbying for the move.

“The Committee for Geelong, TAC, WorkSafe — and others — have been talking strongly about whether we should relocate Comcare to Geelong.

“This could be based in Geelong, as we have known expertise in this field already there with the organisations we already have in Geelong,” he said.

Mr Katos said Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce had been “certainly supportive of the idea” during a recent visit to the region.

“But that is a decision we will have to lobby the Feds about, it is theirs to make,” he said.

“Decentralisation policy is certainly an important part of the Victorian Coalition’s focus and, as we have seen through our population taskforce that we have consulted around Victoria . . . Geelong has an opportunity to lead the world in social insurance.”