It’s vital we get this right

Published on 30 July 2026

The futures of Loddon Shire communities are too important for the Victorian Government to ignore their voices with its plans for the Sustainable Communities Fund – and Loddon Shire Council has demanded that the fund be paused until the right way forward is found.

Council’s call comes as the Murray River Group of Councils (MRGC), of which it is a member, joined with Greater Shepparton City Council to call on the government to rethink its approach to the fund.

The fund was established by the Federal Government – to be administered by the governments of the affected states – to help communities adjust to the social and economic impacts of water buy backs under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

While the funding arrangements between Canberra and Victoria are being finalised, Loddon Shire Mayor Dan Straub said given a lack of consultation with local government there were serious concerns that the fund – valued at about $140 million – would be used to shore up state bureaucracies and simply replace existing federal funding.

“We need a seat at this table, along with farmers, to work out the best way that money should be spent,” Cr Straub said.

“It is vital that this federal assistance money is used wisely to influence the future – but at the moment we’ve been left out of the conversation. We’re talking about jobs, supporting communities and supporting industry that will come and build in Loddon localities and help keep our communities alive.

“When buy backs have taken place we’ve seen that jobs are lost, then families are lost, the schools struggle to get kids and everything shuts down and unfortunately communities eventually die.

“We’re demanding that we don’t get left behind and steamrolled and that we make sure we’ve got some legacy money to build the infrastructure such as the houses, the roads and the trunk infrastructure for more development to support our communities to really thrive into the future.

“To get this right we need a genuine partnership between the State Government, local government and communities leading to tailored implementation plans for each Basin community.”