By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
CASEY is the largest municipality in Victoria, and with population expected to balloon in the next 25 years, State Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has announced a taskforce to tackle the growing issue.
Mr Guy launched the Coalition’s Victorian Population Taskforce on Monday 11 April, saying “Victoria needs a whole of government approach to regionalising our population growth.”
“The biggest challenge Victoria faces today is managing population growth and how that creates new jobs and protects the way we live,” Mr Guy said in a statement.
“This is about jobs, infrastructure and the way we live. We cannot continue to grow the way we have the last 30 years for the next 30 years.”
Casey currently sits at a population of almost 300,000 residents, and by 2041 is expected to be home to 490,000 people.
And recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show Cranbourne East is Australia’s largest growing suburb- expanding by 88 people per week last financial year.
Mr Guy said greater Melbourne’s population was growing by 92 per cent each year, and that a Victorian population policy was needed to ease the infrastructure pressure.
“The Liberal Nationals Coalition sees population growth as an opportunity not a burden and our population taskforce will embrace this opportunity,” Mr Guy said.
“The findings of the Victorian Population Taskforce will form the basis of detailed policies that the Liberal Nationals Coalition will present before the next election.
“The taskforce will look at how government plans for population growth overall, including the infrastructure we will need and how services will need to evolve.”
