Federal Liberal Member for Nicholls Steve Brooks of Cobram knows Yarrawonga well and the need for improvements to keep pace with the fast, increasing population.
“My grandmother Patricia McNeil lived in Hume Street and my grandfather is in a home in Mulwala,” he told the Yarrawonga Chronicle.
“The potential in Yarrawonga is so huge, needing the state and national governments to support the infrastructure for expansion – we shouldn’t be waiting for the population to grow.”
Mr Brooks said Yarrawonga was not just a tourist town and specifically referred to health services for the current and future population.
“Again, we don’t want to build it after we need it,” he said. “Good health services should exist always rather than it be a luxury to see a doctor.
“In the Nicholls electorate, 30 per cent of our population are 60 and over. I’ve already had meetings with the CEO of North East Health and talked about issues specific to the area.”
Something which must be done well at all times, Mr Brooks said, was managing aged care and have access to specialists. “People need to use them in their homes,” he said.
“The Federal Government needs to be aware. I want to improve that representation. I want to try and improve outcomes for people.”
Mr Brooks is aware of issues emanating from ‘twin towns’ bordering the Murray River, with his home situation at Cobram Barooga and such areas as Echuca Moama, has followed the plight of a new Yarrawonga Mulwala Traffic Bridge over many years.
“The bridge is really important. It’s always more difficult going from one state to another but having both local governments and state governments on the one side (the green route) is an extremely powerfully thing,” he said. “It’s progressing quite quickly now.”
The Federal Government Liberal candidate for Nicholls to replace Damien Drum was at the Yarrawonga Foreshore on Tuesday last week to meet locals.
“It was good,” the fourth-generation local-born Cobram secondary school teacher said of meeting many locals. “All the people who came had very different perspectives and issues. It was all productive and all the people I could see were pro active persons with a positive attitude towards their community.”