Editorial: The Standard editor Greg Best on south-west region

Watch: The Standard editor Greg Best advocates for south-west Victoria.

Transcript

00:00 Hello, I'm Greg Best, Editor of The Standard.

00:04 Did you know that the South West is lumped with Geelong and the Barwon region when it

00:08 comes to government departments and statistics?

00:12 Why is that?

00:13 Why doesn't the South West have its own identity?

00:16 Why can't we be known as the South West?

00:19 Why can't the South West region stand alone?

00:22 We have 110,000 people.

00:25 While food and fibre industry alone contributes $5 billion to the state's economy, yet we're

00:31 always lumped in with Geelong.

00:33 Geelong's 180 kilometres away.

00:35 We have very little in common with an industrialised city of Geelong, which is really a metropolitan

00:39 area now.

00:40 Why can't we be the South West region?

00:43 Why can't we be the South West?

00:46 So there's a lot of talk at the moment around the state government considering merging hospitals

00:54 and health services.

00:56 The speculation has been that Geelong will become the hub of Warrnambool, Portland, Hamilton

01:02 and everywhere in between.

01:04 Why can't Warrnambool be the hub for Warrnambool, Portland, Hamilton and everywhere in between

01:09 and Geelong move into its own little region, which is very much a metropolitan region of

01:14 Geelong, the surf coast and potentially Werribee.

01:18 Next week a group of South West leaders and business representatives will converge on

01:24 state parliament to talk about what the region needs, what better way, what a great opportunity

01:29 that will be to further the cause for the South West region to stand alone.

01:33 For more information visit www.fema.gov.au/geelong-region-and-state-parliament.

01:34 For more information visit www.fema.gov.au/geelong-region-and-state-parliament.

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