98.5 ONE FM Podcasts

Council update with Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali

This interview first aired on Monday the 27th of June, 2024 on ONE FM 98.5 Shepparton.

One FM fill-in breakfast announcer Plemo catches up with the Mayor of the Greater Shepparton City Council Shane Sali, who gives us an update on all council news.

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Duration:: 29m
Broadcast on:: 27 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

- You're listening to a one FM podcast. - In the studio, studio one right now, and well, we have the Mayor Shane Sully with us today. How are you, Shane? - Good morning, Plemma. Always good to speak with you, mate. And beautiful morning, the sun is now up. Not as cold as what it has been over the last few mornings. - No, no, no, it hasn't. Now you said you were running on Sunday morning. That must have been chilly. - That was a cold one. Yeah, I went out this morning. It felt like a summer's morning, compared to what it was on Sunday morning. So yeah, obviously a little bit of cloud cover around, makes it a bit more mild, but yeah, it's always good to get out and about it. Around our lake precinct, it's pretty impressive down there, and some amazing shared paths to run or walk, or what have you choose to do? - Good thing about those paths, is they're really, really flat and level. That's a big thing, I've got a bad back, and that is absolutely fantastic. - Yeah, they are. You're not wrong, and they had a lot of work done, actually, obviously coming out of, you're not only the 22 floods, but even this year, we're a bit of damage to our shared path network, right across parts of Shepherd and Marutna, and they've all been repaired, and people that obviously utilise the shared paths would notice that there's been a lot of work undertaken to get them back up the scrubs. So yeah, they're amazing asset, and there'll be an extension, actually, as well. - Okay. - The young, girty, shared path will be extended from Kidstown out to Gemmall Swamp. - Oh, out to Gemmall Swamp. - Yeah, so it'll be a further extension. So that's a great asset, obviously not only for Marutna, but everyone within Greater Shepherd. And especially our visitors now, I mean, you can virtually go from Riviera Park, all the way south, you know, almost at the trotting track, just a little bit further north from there. You know, effectively, at one point, you'll be able to go out to Gemmall. - Yeah. - Swamall, all the way to the boulevard. So it's pretty impressive. - Yeah, yeah, it's really good for walking and riding. Now, the budget and projects and all kinds of things, sports accessibility, you had council meetings on Tuesday night. - Yeah, we did, so we had our June council meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and it was a big meeting. The agenda wasn't overly big, but some big items and none bigger than our 24/25 budget. So it's been a long process. I said at the meeting that, you know, one of the best things about being on council is actually working to develop the budget and working through that process. It's a lengthy process, but one of the hardest things is actually to endorse the budget because you have so many community members and projects that you want to be able to achieve good things for them. And obviously, you know, you quite simply can't do everything. But we had 158 submissions through our consultation period when we were obviously developing the draft budget and that, you know, presented a number of projects, everything that you can possibly think of, not only the road infrastructure, upgrades, community projects like Princess Park, obviously investment into men's sheds, our skate park upgrades, all the things that you can possibly think of. And credit to some people that, you know, have been at us for a number of years, and that's what we really encourage people. You know, you know, some projects will be achieved effectively, you know, in one year because of some certain reasons. Maybe that's particular funding streams are available. But there's some really good people out there that have been really at us for a number of years and we're pleased to be able to see some of their projects get underway. One of the bigger ones that we've obviously put some funding towards to get a detailed design and really start to progress what's taking place is Princess Park. So many people would be well aware that during the 22 floods, I mean, the Shepherds Swans, the United Youth Club, Cricket Club, the Runners Club, obviously all the user groups, the Italian Social Club that sit within the Princess Park facility, which I mean is effectively at the bottom of a lake considering the bank, the obviously runs right around it. So, you know, when that filled up, it was devastating for all those user groups. And we've been working over a period of time. We're a little bit behind time. I will admit that. And there was some other factors that contributed to that. We've worked through that. We've got a really proactive executive now. And obviously a group of councils that want to have something achieved and we're committed to having a plan on the table later this year because the reality is they've got temporary facilities. The change rooms and whatnot actually aren't that bad down there, the temporary ones, but they're in an open dome type of environment from a social perspective like as in Thursday night dinner. So the first year would have been exciting for them, but I can appreciate now a lot of members down there are a bit tired and they want to see something done. We're committed to having something done. And that was a really important budget item to have there. And then, you know, you go New Skate Parking Tactura. - Yeah. - We're also, the one down there is just not good at all. I don't even know what the appropriate word would be to use on the live radio, but let's say pretty ordinary. - Yeah, that's probably a nice about it. - Not that I'm a skater, but any more. - Yeah, you know, just old, dated. So again, community made it loud and clear. And we will not only be designing, but we will be constructing a new skate park in this coming financial year. So that's pleasing for Tactura community. It's a great asset. You know, it's an asset that is free to use. You know, youth obviously are active and we've got to provide things for them to get access to. And then, you know, you go also into types of other really important infrastructure. We know the Orval Road Poplar Ave intersection is-- - Nightmare. - Nightmare, yeah. Some obviously really bad accidents have taken place there. So we've got some funding in there to have a roundabout constructed there, which will be very pleasing for people that use that road. But we know obviously our rural roads are dangerous at the best of time. So if we can do an invest and get funding to have those types of infrastructure projects achieved, it's great. So look, plenty of things happening. I do encourage community members. It's a very detailed document. I will admit, even for myself who's in there and are living and breathing at all, it's a very detailed document. But if you want to get access to it, you can jump on the Greater Shum City Council website. And obviously, you can download the whole document and effectively read line by line and see what's been included and perhaps what's forecasting future year's budgets. So yeah, above all, things are tracking okay. Financially, we're trending to a point where we're planning to be in surplus the 25, 26 budgets. So we're tracking slowly but surely to that. It's obviously, you know, we're not immune to any of the challenges. - Yeah. - So everyone, you and I and every community member face, obviously different levels of that impact, different people. But the reality is, you know, fuel is what it is. The ability to construct infrastructure projects are what they are. The Council are also very limited to be able to negotiate as well. You put out a tender date, people apply for it. You've got to deliver it on what they do. So you don't have a lot of room to negotiate pricing. So look, we're not immune to it, but we're working towards being in a surplus, which is important. And we're a really proactive and collaborative group of Councillors and we're heading in the right direction. - Well, yeah, that's good news that heading towards a surplus. And I guess it must be difficult because you'd have people pulling on you in all different directions. Hey, can you do this? Can you do that? Got to say though, when I was a kid, there was all lobbying for skate parks and there weren't any. And now they're everywhere. I am so jealous. - Yeah, they are, you're right. And look, they deserve them because what actually happens is obviously community grown actually, but, you know, we have the demands. And as you said, and rightly so, community are entitled to ask the question that's our job is to listen to them and obviously try and deliver as much as we possibly can. Obviously, as I said to you, at the start of the show, you know, the best thing is actually trying to work and develop a budget. - Yeah. - The hardest thing is to endorse it because you always leave projects out. - Yeah, yeah. - There's always going to be something on the feels like the mist down. - Yeah, it is really heartbreaking at times because there are some really good people driving some projects, community volunteers and, you know, shout out to all our volunteers that work tirelessly amongst many committees throughout our region that, you know, put their hand up, put presentations forward, you know, come and obviously advocate strongly. And, you know, God, there's nine counselors, obviously. And we all, we speak to different people, albeit, that a lot of people do go directly to all of us, but God, if we were to try and achieve every project that we had put in front of us, well, there you go. You know, I told you 158 submissions. - Yeah. - You know, it's crazy. You know, it's impossible and, you know, to think that we had 150, there you go. Wow, that's crazy. Like how many things can possibly be put forward to us, but it's an active communion and we've got to try and achieve as many of the, of we can. But like I said, if it doesn't happen this year, that doesn't mean it's off the table. - Yeah. - That just means, you know, like anything, and I sort of hate sort of saying this, it's sort of like we just got to keep chipping away. - Chipping away. - Yeah, just keep coming back, you know, next year be front of mind of counselors again. Obviously we've got an election this year, so some of those counselors may run with certain projects as priority projects to want to see achieve. So, you know, I encourage you to get active and get engaged with, you know, the current group of counselors, prospective candidates, and seeing, you know, what they want to have achieved. Obviously we're moving to a ward system, so some people's projects might be obviously in a certain ward, which, well, they will be, and some new candidates might want to drive those potential projects for them. So, yes, we would love to be able to do everything. Unfortunate we can't, but keep chipping away, 'cause every project that gets put forward is worthwhile. That's just, we've got to try and fit it in at some point, so. - Yeah. So, tell me about sports. The fair access and down at the sports stadium, what's going on? - Well, not so much specifically down at the sports stadium, but we actually endorse our sport and recreation facilities. Fair access policy and action plan, I think I got that one right, but look, obviously we know that there's been a significant uptake in sport over a number of years now. Obviously both, you know, we're seeing, you know, what would be traditionally boys or men's sports. Now, you know, we're seeing young girls and women playing all sports, which is great. You know, we've got both men and women playing all sports that, you know, we're so actively involved in, but what's actually happened is, and look, it's no, sort of no deliberate act by anyone, but clearly if you drive around and you go and visit all of our facilities, or at least most of them, they're all designed and structured to accommodate just men, basically all boys. So there's not a lot of. - It's a blokes world, folks. Well, it was, we're changing that. - Yeah, so yeah, you're right. So what actually happens is, okay, well, so what do we need to do? How do we provide better access? So it's not only for both men and women, but also people with a disability as well. So, you know, it's not about excluding anyone, it's about including everyone. So how do we work through that? So basically what this policy is in place for is to understand how we can have better inclusion, understand what our facilities are like, and then work through a process. And this is always the biggest challenge, because we can go down to a facility and identify that clearly it's not up to standard, but then to get it to a standard, it requires dollars. And we just spoke about a budget and understanding what we can do, but there are a number of grants available, which is pleasing, like state and federal government grants. And obviously we've seen some real success stories more recently, obviously the Matilda's skyrocketed to start them above and beyond, whatever I knew of them already. And really sort of exposed that, hey, there's some really strong talent out here, and there probably isn't the facilities to support the growth in certain sports with young girls or women more broadly. So how do we do that? This policy will address that. By that I mean, it allows us to review and then work towards a plan to implement some physical structures to accommodate everyone that wants to get access to playing sport. Yeah, and I guess as the world becomes more lethargy, can we all stare into screens? Pushing sport is probably a really good avenue to go to keep people fit and healthy and getting out and socializing. I mean, sports, an amazing part of a lot of people's lives, and not only is the physical component, the social component, so that's vitally important as well. So, and then that supports people, you know, mental health as well, which is super important. So look, you know, we just spoke about it before around, okay, we want sport, absolutely, but we've got our shared path network. We're trying to create an active city. And that's what we want to do. We want to be able to give people access regardless of who you are and what your conditions or whatever you might be. We basically want to be able to give you access to what you want to be able to do. This policy addresses those types of issues that we're currently dealing with, and we just want to work forward with that. - We're going to take a break. We're with Shane Salley, the mayor of Greater Shepherd and 98.5, one FM, live and local. ♪ Keep it in long ♪ ♪ One ♪ ♪ One FM ♪ ♪ 98.5 ♪ ♪ You're not alone ♪ ♪ You found a home ♪ - You're listening to 98.5, one FM, live and local. We have the mayor of Greater Shepherd and Shane Salley in the studio with us at the moment. Now, Shane, let's talk smart devices and apps and things. Do you use a smartphone? - I do, and you and I were just chatting off air about I'm an Android user and I'm an iPhone user. - You're with everyone else, iPhone users, so. - Yeah, but the Greater Shepherd and app. What's it called? - Yeah, it is, call that. The Greater Shepherd and app, so you can download it for free, which is very pleasing because it is available, as we were just chatting on both your Android Play Store and the Apple iTunes Store. Is that what you guys call it? I just call it the blue square with an A in App Store. - Yeah, so, free to download and we really encourage community members if you have a smartphone to download it because it gives you access to basically everything regarding council. So, your bins, everything. - You name it, yeah, your bins. But one of the real pleasing things is, obviously there's a Watson component, obviously your bin collection, so you can go in there, put in your address, it'll tell you exactly when your bins, you're getting collected, you can see. You know, have that reminder set as well, so you can print out a calendar or whatever it might be that you choose to do regarding your bin. So, it actually is pretty important at the moment. There's a lot going on in the bin space. Parking, those are used to pay stay up. You can get direct access via the Greater Shepherd and app. Report an issue. So, if you have an issue with something, you know, if you see something, you can report it directly, public transport as well, which is amazing. You can jump on there and it connects you to all the relevant public transport, you know, companies, whether it's V-Line or your local bus network here. And then a really good one is also where you can dine. So, from a hospitality perspective and shop as well. So, you know, all our local businesses. - All these from a council app. - Absolutely, yeah. So, it's pretty impressive. - Activities are showing you now and obviously a three. You listen as I can't show you through the mic, but yeah, you and I were just chatting about it and I'm so pleased that the internal team at council were able to develop this. It's been... - Oh, it's an internal job, is it? - Yeah, absolutely, yeah. So, I got some skilled people there down at council that I did say, I won't say his last name, but Mikey, you know, shout out to Mikey. - G'day, Mikey. - You know, the comms team, you nerd. I told him, once this was developed, I told him he went to the top of my list. So, it was good. It was good to have this done internally 'cause obviously, like anything, you know, we spoke earlier about budget, we want things to be as cost effective. So, it's very skilled. We're able to get all our data in here. So, this is just a starting point out, it's a foundation on what we can build on to be able to have greater connection with our community. And that was one thing that I had sort of been advocating for when I was first elected is, hey, we need to get better connection with our community and provide access. - And it's the best way to do it. - The best way to do it. - This is an option, you know? - Yeah. - Not everyone has a smart phone, not everyone's gonna download it, we get it. But hey, it's free. There's no reason why you shouldn't have it on your phone. Get on to your relevant app store and download it and see what it's about. And one of the most important things that I love and with the school holidays. - Yes, of course, yes. - Coming up, I think they finish. Tomorrow I've got three young kids. I should know when school finishes. I know today's Pajama Day. - Is it for them? So, they'll be-- - Well, you're not in your jammies, mate. - No, not for me. But for the kids, they're pretty excited to get changed out of their pajamas into their favorite pajamas. - Yeah. - For pajama day today at school. So, but yeah, look, we know school holidays are upon us. - Yeah, heaps going on too. - Starting this weekend and there is a lot going on. And again, if you download the app, it tells you what's on. You go to the month of July. - Activities in the park. - Yeah, you've got, yeah, 2024, Victoria Under 12, hockey championships are gonna be in. Shepherds is the nature scavenger hunt, obviously, on the 2nd of July. - The community plantings, balloon play. - Yeah, shepherds squash international is on here. - Are you getting down there for laser tag? There's some laser tag. - There's some laser tag on. There's the movies as well. There's the school holiday movie afternoon at the Shepherds library as well on Friday. - Yes. - So, look, there's plenty on again. If you don't have the app, I encourage you to. If not, you can jump on the Shep and GV website or social media platforms and you can find out everything. But we're really encouraging people in a nice way to stay home for the holidays. When we can stay home for the holidays, it's not obviously staying indoors. But stay home and visit the great things we've got in offer across Greater Shep. And we talk about the Museum of Vehicle Evolution. If you have not visited there, please take your kids there. They will be blown away. There's an amazing collection of cars, motorbikes, obviously the Lowell Thompson clothing collection. - Are you a Holden or Fordman? - I'm a Holdenman. - You're a Holdenman? - Yeah, I'm a Holdenman, so. - And what do you drive? - He Hyundai. (laughing) - It's a council car. They, don't blame the council. - They've got a zero emissions policy so they didn't want to give me an SSV8. - Oh, you can't either, right? - Yeah, so now we're all about efficiencies at council. So no, look, yeah, I remember I really wanted to get one when they were obviously made the announce. We're obviously going way off track here. - That's okay. - But obviously when Holden made that announcement, they weren't going to make any cars. And you know, you could pick them up, whatever they were going for, normal recommended retail, you know, that sort of 50 or 60,000. And I was keen, but my wife is completely anti sort of those types of cars. And we obviously went down the path of getting a Hyundai. And now you see the price of them. They've absolutely skyrocketed, like sort of north of 100, 150,000 for your basic comadores, which makes sense. But they're an iconic car, and like many cars, so go in there and check out some of the iconic olden day cars that were obviously front and center for most, you know, a little while ago. But, you know, for young kids now to see, you know, some original GTs and a bit of history around them. And then there's the avenue of legends, obviously, a story there around our transport industry here. We know we've got 25% of all trucks registered in Victoria right here in Greater Shepparton. - 25% in Shepparton. - Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely, so. - Wow. - Yeah, so it's pretty impressive, so. - It's the FERFI display still there. - Yeah, the FERFI foundry display, or FERFI story, I should say, is down there. So yeah, really impressive, obviously indoor, so it might be a big cold. And then, you know, you've got your Shepparton Art Museum, you've got Yakkor moves, Kid's Town, all the good things that are happening here. You know, take the kids up Mount Major as well. You know, there's plenty of trails, and we spoke earlier about our shared path network. You know, although, you know, we are effectively almost in the middle of winter, getting close to it. You know, it's a beautiful part of the world here, where, you know, you can be here in winter and still go outside and be active. So, school holidays are here. We encourage you to stay home and visit all the great landmarks. We've got across our region and investing to our local economy, 'cause if we support each other, we'll have more people there for years to come, to continue to give back to our great community. - Yeah, and so, what activities do you have planned with your children? - That is a good question. I'm going to jump on the app, and I'll find out what's happening. So, now we've got to round out, round out the last weekend of sport this weekend, and then, yeah, look, we are quite an active family. So, the bikes are going to get a bit of a tune up, and we will be hitting the shared paths as well. But, yeah, look, the kids love getting to, you know, your local sort of parks around town. - And there's a lot of them. - Yeah, the like, the all abilities playground, my kids love that one there at the back of back of a movie. - Yeah, that's on a different level, isn't it? - Yeah, that's pretty impressive. And then, obviously, if the weather's not too bad, you've got, like, your rebang indoor play, inflatable world, these types of indoor facilities that are here local that we encourage you to get access to. So, yeah, there's a bit going on. - Yeah, so, we've missed the news, mate. We've been yacking so long. - And we're more important than that. - Well, yeah, well, there you go. There you go, we're more important. - Mate, look, I have noticed with some of the playgrounds, they seem to have had a bit of work done on them as in, like, all the bark chips and everything. - Yeah, so, especially the ones that were impacted by the floods, I mean, obviously, all the ones around the lake or the two, the all abilities, and obviously, the main one there, the lake playground that obviously sort of fronts Windham Street, they were completely damaged, you know, sort of through that period of time when we had the flood. So, they obviously had a heap of rehab work to take in there, and bark was one of them, but we're also undertaking, we've got a-- - No, but I'm talking everywhere. - There's an ongoing maintenance program that happens. See, these are the things that, you know, communities say, you know, what are your rates go to? What are the things that you get value out of? Well, not everyone uses a playground, I get it, right? But we, I think the Parks and Rec team and our infrastructure team do an amazing job in to try and keep everything as presented as what it is. We have the best entrance and lake precinct that you will see anywhere. - Yeah. - Anywhere in regional, Victoria, let alone regional Australia. - Yep. - We have the best regional sports precinct that you will see in Australia. - It's huge. - It's unbelievable. And the standard and the, that is undertaken there to deliver that facility to the standard that it is now, the icing on the cake is obviously the sports stadium, we're working hard towards that. But look, there's amazing things going on and regarding the playgrounds, we've got a shade sale strategy as well. So, we want to get to-- - Not for summer. - Yeah, really. - Yeah, but it takes you, it's expensive. - Oh, yeah. - It's shade sales up. But we're working towards a plan to eventually get, you know, every playground covered with appropriate shade sales, acknowledging that that obviously comes with ongoing maintenance and repairs, 'cause they get damaged, you know, whether deliberately with, you know, people that obviously don't respect the items that we have here or storms, you know, those types of things. So, yeah, we've got a shade sale strategy. So, I think there's going to be some shade sales being sold down at the Lake playground, which is pleasing, 'cause that's in the open at the moment. - Yeah, it is, isn't it? So-- - You might want to give some people some news. - Well, it's too late, mate. We've missed the news. - Oh, geez, sorry about that. - You need to give some people some news. You're the mayor. - Well, unfortunately, I obviously had the announcement regarding Darrangal. - Ah, yeah. - Yeah, closing down, albeit not directly associated with local government, but, you know, our first reaction comes to the job losses, you know, the north of sort of 150 jobs. - Not many. - Yeah, so we'll be engaging with relevant sources to ensure that those individuals can obviously transition out of that environmental bed that I think I was reading. And again, this is all coming to everyone. You know, it's not a council matter, so we're all sort of effectively reading the same information, but I think they'll be offered jobs, you know, in other correction services, but, you know, we don't want to lose 160 people from our reading. So, how do we now make sure that relevant agencies can work with these individuals to say, "Look, there's job opportunities here." We're obviously a heavily backed agriculture and industry region, so there are job opportunities, so, you know, that's where our first sort of point of contact goes, and to make sure that those individuals and families can feel supported to transition either out of their existing role into something different, or make sure that they've got support there to consider something else. So, yeah, that's the front page of today's paper, so that's all you have. - Oh, is it? I haven't looked at today's. - Yeah, it's the front page of the shepherding news, so, yeah, and then again, what happens to that piece of infrastructure out there? Obviously, there's a heritage listed, you know, sort of big mansion, or, well, the original sort of big building out there. So, yeah, look, that's-- - Have you ever been there? - I haven't. - Have you? - I went, no, not officially, in regards to sort of any type of tour or whatnot, but, you know, you only have to drive out the road and you can see it there, so, yeah, I mean, obviously it's sort of out in its own, sort of relatively isolated, but again, you know, we don't want to have a big piece of infrastructure you just sitting out there. - Yeah. - Will you speak in a relevant state government representatives to understand, you know, what now? What does it look like, but see, this is what happens when these types of decisions are made and it impacts us as a community from a financial perspective, and we don't sort of know what it sort of really means yet, but we've just endorsed some further funds to develop a GV link, which is our big industrial precinct that we're wanting to make a reality out on Telemba Road in Marupna. - Oh, right, yeah, yeah, I heard about that, 'cause yeah, my folks live in Lenny Street, which is just out there. - We also happen to know that Lenny Street is a part of our budget is having some underground stormwater drainage work. - Yeah, still flooding. - Yes, yeah, we know that, so we, as a group of councils, when the floods took place and we were informed that not only when we have significant floods, just general rain events. - Yeah, yeah. - Heavy rain, there's a bit of flooding there. - Yeah, floods, and that's not good enough. - Yeah, we committed to resolving that and wanting to work through, and as you can appreciate it, that's a big job. They're big jobs because it's so difficult to just go and dig up infrastructure and then you hope that your drainage working that it actually does work, 'cause you've got to move the water somewhere. So yeah, the stage one of that is to obviously have some work undertaken there, which is pleasing, but yes, that is not too far down or up from GV link. - Yeah, yeah, so what's the link about? - Yeah, so basically, it's been in the pipeline for a long time and then the council of the day, I think it might have been about 2010, so it's been on the books or 2012, so it's been on the books for a long time. This council were really committed to resolving it, and by that I mean is we either wanna develop it and make it into an industrial park that had vision for, or you wanna sell it, you can't sort of have both. And especially me, I don't like just sort of just being in limbo, what are we doing with it? We've got an asset here, it's underutilized, what are we doing with it? We've got to work out what we're doing with it. So not only do we have a significant amount of demand for residential development here, we've got a significant demand for people wanting to develop large-scale business and industry here, and as not only locals wanting to expand their footprint, but also international and national brands wanting to be here to a set up shop, which is really pleasing. We're talking large-scale investments, we're not talking mum and dad operations on the corner of the street, these are big industries, north of 50 to 100 employees per industry. So this is big, and we obviously took another really important step through our budget to basically put our hand up and say we are financially committed to doing this. Obviously we're getting a lot of support from the federal government because these projects are just unachievable locally. So that'll open up a stage one. We've still got to go through a tender process to obviously make sure that the work's gonna be done and it all lines up figure-wise. So yeah, that's so important. So again, this is why when high levels of government make decisions like they did regarding Darrangal, we probably say, well, that's okay, okay, if you've made that decision and you've got strategic justification, right, that's your decision. - Yep. - Whether I agree with it or not, it's probably irrelevant to you right now. But we've got over here a massive investment undertaking that's gonna drive jobs in our local economy. So what are you doing to help us in that aspect? - Yep. - You've got to sort of, if you're gonna take, you've got to sort of give as well on the other side to make sure that our region continues to prosper. You can't just keep taking, you've also got to support us as well. And that's why this GBLink project is vitally important, especially now when you've closed down a business or a service that employs a lot of people. And I wanna know where those people can work and we wanna drive our local economy. Our council's committed to that. I'm committed to that. And GBLink is one of those projects that can be really successful and effectively not only prosper greater shepherdom, but the whole Golden Valley. - Yeah, well, we're right in the middle of sort of Victoria. We're in a really good position for-- - We know the surrounding municipalities feed off us. And that's fine, that's important. It's our responsibility to drive our local economy and everyone benefits, you know, not just you and I or the people that we live next door to. The whole community here and far will obviously reap the benefits of a development like GBLink. So, and we can service it as well. And I just spoke to you about our transport industry. So you can have all these industries come here, you gotta be able to service it. And we can do that. So it's exciting, it's risk. - Yeah. - It's risk associated to us. - Well, there isn't everything. - With everything, absolutely. But by God, if this comes off and we are doing all possible to make this a successful project and we'll be working hard to ensure that it is, this will be massive for our region. Not only now, but in many years to come. So it's not something that will just develop next year and you reap the benefits. - It's forward thinking. - Of course, these are those type of legacy items that you wanna set up and ensure that the people that come after us in whatever capacity that might be, they have a good foundation that they can continue to build on. So that's probably wrap up on all the news from me, mate. - Yeah, well, thank you very much for coming in on this jewelry morning. I really do appreciate it, Shane. - Enjoy, Plamo. Enjoy the rest of your day, mate. Love chatting with you guys. One FM, do a great job. - You've been listening to a one FM podcast.