More State and Federal support needed to bolster Margaret River as key destination and attraction: Selvey

A State Government lifeline or greater recognition of the ways the Margaret River region contributes to the State’s economy could help ease the burden on ratepayers, shire chief executive Andrea Selvey says.

Since taking the helm of the Augusta-Margaret River Shire at the end of July, Ms Selvey said she leapt into the advocacy work already started by councillors under shire president Julia Meldrum.

“We need to advocate very strongly here in the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River for our community because sometimes I think the . . . State Government’s response, to me, is a little ‘one size fits all’,” Ms Selvey said.

“They are dealing with complex and very different needs across the State. But they don’t consider the nuances of each community.

“So for Augusta-Margaret River, I don’t think . . . the State is responding to or recognising the rapid growth that’s happening here and the pressures that brings.

“The growth here is unprecedented compared with many other, most important communities. For us, I think all of our advocacy efforts need to be underpinned by that message: ‘don’t treat us like the rest of the State because it is unique’.”

When asked about a Margaret River-specific funding lifeline from the State Government to honour the region’s role promoting the State, as well as the Capes being Perth’s playground, Ms Selvery said she “wouldn’t think it’s unreasonable”.

“An interesting conversation that’s been had is around the distribution of the financial assistance grants,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable that the way the financial assistance grants are, the (ABS) matrix for the allocations, should take into consideration those . . . transient populations and how they can impact a community, and the resourcing needed to support those communities, and how the financial assistance for grants would be a mechanism to do that as a regular, untied funding stream.

“Being fairly blunt about it as well, it’s an economic product for the State. It’s not just a feel-good ‘we like it and it’s precious and we need to protect it’. It’s actually one of your (WA’s) biggest tourism drawcards as an economic product.”

While local government heads treasured the “heady days” when Royalties for Region funded major projects such as the main street redevelopment, the perimeter road and the Augusta boat harbour, that money also didn’t consider the legacy costs of maintaining infrastructure either.

Ms Selvey said that maintenance was now an added cost for ratepayers, and rejigging funding models to give those needs greater consideration was merited.

Federal Government financial assistance in particular had waned during recent decades, while the WA Government also delivered grants.