It should be a case of the best case deserves the most support.
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If you perform better than someone else, it is you who should be rewarded.
But the reality is that this is not always the case.
The many years of pork barreling in the swinging regional seats around Ballarat and Bendigo has shown that often it comes to someone else’s needs – that is, those hankering after political power – when many important decisions are made.
For such marginal seats, that of course translates to new hospitals, to rail infrastructure investments, to any number of projects that in isolation are worthy but on a cross-the-board comparison are no more important than those in the safe seats that constantly miss out.
In the private sector a company obviously is not going to move to an area, or expand the business, if it does not make sense on paper. A location needs ready access to the business’s markets and a skilled workforce on which to draw.
In many ways, Albury and Wodonga are identical. Each centre should not present itself as a better business case than the other. In fact, both cities have outstanding attributes that the Border per se will long be able to draw on to continue to attract new industry.
And so it can so easily come down to an extra incentive that can be pulled out of the hat to make a company choose one or the other. It is no surprise then that it was the dangling carrot of incentives from the Victorian government that ultimately led to the decision by Seeley International to make the move from Albury to Wodonga.
This is not a bad thing; quite the opposite. If it means a thriving company not only remains in the area but is able to expand, it is of benefit to the whole area.
It is surely better than having a company simply move away, so the incentives that were put on the table should be applauded.
The problem is, Albury does not have a state government with the same commitment to the potential that’s so abundantly on show in the city’s diverse range of innovative industry.
It is in that context that Albury Council’s decision to head down the road of offering financial incentives to maintain businesses or get new ones to move to the city is a positive move.
After all, if nothing new is created for the economic benefit of the city then nothing need be spent.