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Our priorities and projects

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Our partnership champions a range of priorities, some of which have led to new initiatives in our region.

On this page:

Words from Gippsland

Words from Gippsland is a 6-part podcast series exploring inspiring stories with connections to Gippsland.

The project emerged from the Gippsland Regional Partnership’s interest in enhancing positive narratives about Gippsland, focusing on opportunity, and building upon collective aspirations for what is possible in the region.

Gippsland Regional Partnership engaged The View from Here and thanks to the support of Gippslandia, have the episodes featured in an introductory article.

Check out the article and episodes by visiting Gippslandia.

Workforce housing

Gippsland Regional Partnership identified workforce housing as a significant regional priority in the early stages of its second term. The Gippsland housing challenge is not new and has far-reaching impacts on the community. Lack of access to housing has been exacerbated in recent years by the impact of the 2019-20 bushfires and increases in migration to the region.

Securing workers for workforce shortages within construction, agriculture, teaching and health, for example, faces the additional challenge of lack of access to housing. As Gippsland’s economy continues to transition, there is a significant opportunity to attract and retain skilled workers in new and emerging sectors, provided there is the housing stock and infrastructure to support them.

To understand the workforce housing opportunities and challenges across Gippsland 2 pieces of work were commissioned:

Workforce housing industry engagement

To strengthen the partnership's understanding of industry perspectives on workforce housing challenges and opportunities, they engaged Aerium to facilitate 2 industry workshops and individual interviews with industry stakeholders.

Participants included land developers, real estate agents, and businesses with staff shortages exacerbated by housing shortages. More than 50 people came together to share their knowledge and experiences through workshops or individual interviews.

Aerium consolidated this information into the Gippsland Workforce Housing Review report which outlines a series of 17 recommendations.

The Gippsland Workforce Housing Report

Cube Group was engaged and partnered with Aerium to deliver a report that reviews, analyses and articulates Gippsland’s land planning challenges and opportunities. It highlights the impact of housing needs on business’s workforce attraction and retention.

View the Gippsland Workforce Housing Report Gippsland Workforce Housing Report (PDF 929.13 KB) PDF icon

If you require this report in an alternate format, please contact gippsland.partnership@rdv.vic.gov.au

Migration attraction community engagement

One of the Gippsland Regional Partnership’s priorities is developing and implementing a migration attraction plan. This plan will consider cultural diversity, improving settlement supports, addressing workforce skills gaps, and housing needs. The Regional Partnership has advocated for this priority.

Many sectors across Gippsland are facing workforce shortages, which present a challenge for businesses' day-to-day operations and growth. One way to address this shortage is to settle migrants into the region to fill vacant positions.

Before commencing the development of a Migration Attraction Plan, the partnership identified the need to engage with the community on migration issues. For this engagement, the partnership has partnered with Federation University to deliver co-designed community engagements exploring regional migration opportunities and challenges.

The first round of engagements took place between September 2023 and February 2024. These engagements focused on the experiences of migrants living in Gippsland, as well as businesses employing migrants in Gippsland.

The outputs from the first round have informed the planning and design of the second round of engagements, which will be delivered over the coming months. The final outputs will be completed in July 2024.

Past projects

Gippsland Regional Plan 2020-2025

The Gippsland Regional Plan is our long-term strategic plan for improving the economic, social, cultural, and environmental outcomes for our Gippsland region and our community.

It will guide us as we strive to reach our full potential and ensure that Gippsland is recognised as the place to live, work, invest and play.

Gippsland Regional Plan, 2020-2025 - Brochure (PDF 992.42 KB) PDF icon

An accessible version of this document is not currently available. Please email RDV Gippsland if you need further information.

Gippsland Regional Plan 2020-2025 (PDF 1981.74 KB) PDF icon
Gippsland Regional Plan 2020-2025 (DOCX 7253.42 KB) DOCX icon

Putting Gippsland tourism on the map

Tourism was a common priority identified by the Gippsland community at a number of Regional Assembly engagements and mini assemblies, as well as through our ongoing consultation process.

As a direct result of the partnership's efforts, the Minister for Regional Development and the Minister for Tourism announced in 2017 $400,000 for the creation of a Gippsland Destination Management Plan.

The plan aims to increase Gippsland’s visitor economy, making it more competitive, adaptive, and diverse. Since the Gippsland Destination Management Plan was released in 2019, it was updated in February 2022 to reflect and build upon the significant work achieved since then.

Education: a real difference for Gippsland

At our 2017 assembly engagement, Gippslanders told us how important skills and education are for the future of our region, while at our 2018 assembly engagement, education and raising educational aspirations, again took centre stage.

We have repeatedly taken our region’s education and training message to the Victorian Government and were thrilled by announcements in the 2018/19 Budget of huge support for TAFE across the state, including $35.5 million for the redevelopment of Federation Training Morwell and $25 million for Federation Training’s Port of Sale Development to consolidate its services in Sale into a new education community and industry hub.

Our education aspirations for the region have also been aided by the new Gippsland Tech School, located at Gippsland's Hi Tech Precinct in Morwell.

The Gippsland Tech School includes a high-tech skills lab, a fabrication room and a makerspace for students to use and get hands-on experience with specialised high-tech equipment. The school will focus on science, technology, engineering and maths centred around Gippsland’s primary industries to improve employment pathways and future jobs for people across the region.

Gippsland Digital Plan

The Gippsland Digital Plan identified gaps in the region’s digital landscape while outlining priority actions for how these gaps can be addressed.

The plan brought together information on the region’s digital infrastructure and services, helping establish evidence-based existing and emerging gaps, needs and priorities.

Several priorities were identified to help close the digital divide across Gippsland, including addressing mobile blackspots, better services for remote and vulnerable communities, promoting stronger NBN and future technologies, facilitating digital literacy training and enhancing connectivity for tourism across the region.

Gippsland Regional Digital Plan (PDF 1518.03 KB) PDF icon
Gippsland Digital Plan - supporting information (PDF 7340.54 KB) PDF icon
Gippsland Digital Plan - supporting information (DOCX 29797.09 KB) DOCX icon

Connect with us

Send us an email at gippsland.partnership@rdv.vic.gov.au

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