General News
8 May, 2026
Education, health and cost of living headline government’s 2026-27 State Budget
The release of Tuesday’s 2026-27 State Budget has revealed a mix of both investments and gaps across Victoria, some set to cascade to the Central Goldfields.
This year’s funding pledges the region will find centre on several big themes: education, health and cost of living measures.
Many of the first effects Victorians will feel from the budget had already been lingering prior to this week’s release, with the announcements of 20 percent off car registration, free public transport throughout April and May this year and half price fares until 2027, made in advance.
Another of these announcements made in the lead up, and one of the biggest wins for the Central Goldfields, was the pledge of $18 million toward upgrades at Maryborough Education Centre’s specialist setting.
Member for Ripon Martha Haylett is welcoming the investment, describing it as a long-awaited outcome for the community.
“I’m just still so over the moon about that outcome, I know everyone has been fighting and advocating for that for several years now, I’m just so happy that we got that across the line and we can see that upgrade coming very soon,” she said.
To complement this announcement, the State Government has invested $59.4 million toward cost of living programs in all government schools, along with $114 million into rural and regional education.
These are measures Ms Haylett said would help ease financial pressure on families while improving access to education support.
“One thing that goes in really nicely and will benefit every single school in the electorate of Ripon is also $2.2 billion to support children with disabilities in our schools ... there are also free breakfast programs, affordable school uniforms, a free glasses for kids program and Get Active Kids vouchers,” she said.
As for health, a win for the region is $1.1 million toward Healthy Loddon Campaspe, an organisation often partnering with Central Goldfields and neighbouring shires, to deliver projects and incentives towards improving physical health and wellbeing.
Ms Haylett said the funding will go toward chronic disease preven-tion.
“They do a great amount of work not just in the Central Goldfields Shire but in the Loddon Shire. I am really pleased, they do a lot of work in prevention and education. We always need more money for health prevention,” she said.
For local farmers, the State Budget has marked an extension to the Victorian Fox Bounty program, with a $2.2 million investment to help manage the impacts of livestock predation.
“For our local farmers, we have got some great funding for agribusinesses, but also to extend the fox bounty,” Ms Haylett said.
$1.8 million has also been allocated to continue the work of the Rural Financial Counselling service, offering free support for rural and regional families facing financial hardship.
As for roads, one of the most common topics raised with Ms Haylett, $1.04 billion is set to be spent on rebuilding, repairing and resurfacing networks across the state, the highest investment into roads in the state’s history.
“Roads is a huge issue not just in the Central Goldfields Shire but across Ripon, it’s one of the biggest things people ask me about, so I am very happy to see there is $1 billion towards road repairs and resurfacing, and 70 percent of that money is going to rural and regional Victoria,” Ms Haylett said.
“We are not just filling a pot hole that we are going to blow out again, we are actually repairing those roads. That’s something I will forever bug the Minister for Roads about.”
In the lead-up to the budget, public transport discounts were already on the table, with Maryborough train line users set to save about $850 a year, as fares drop to half price at $5.70.
Tuesday’s budget detailed $318 million for upgrades to “reduce delays and improve reliability” on Victoria’s regional train network. While the Shepparton train line and even the Portalington Ferry will see more daily services, despite Central Goldfields Shire’s plea for more frequent trains to Ballarat launched earlier this year, the line didn’t make the final cut.
“That is something I am still continuously working on, hopefully in the future we will have more train services and people will be able to save more with fuel expenses,” Ms Haylett said.
As for other wins in the Ripon electorate, $26.2 million allocated to new CFA facilities, including a new station for Kingston Fire Brigade and $62 million provided in response to the January 2026 bushfires, allocated to the region’s primary producers and agricultural sectors, including primary producer grants, concessional loans and emergency fodder support.