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This article was published on Thursday, 1 May, 2014. The information contained within may be out of date or inaccurate. News articles and media releases older than 60 days are archived for future reference.

Dept Prime Minister visits Greater Shepparton

The Make Shepparton Greater campaign is having an impact resulting in a meeting today with Deputy Prime Minister, Warren Truss. Minister Truss visited Shepparton and took the opportunity to discuss the bypass with Greater Shepparton City Council representatives.

Mr Truss, who is the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development and Leader of the National Party, was in Shepparton today to open the new Pactum Dairy Group UHT milk plant.

He then met with Greater Shepparton City Council's Mayor, Cr Jenny Houlihan; Deputy Mayor Dennis Patterson; CEO Gavin Cator; and Federal Member for Murray, Sharman Stone.

Mr Truss was provided with an overview of the Make Shepparton Greater Campaign and history of the Shepparton Bypass project. Mr Truss was able to provide some valuable advice to Council as to how to proceed to seek funding for a staged construction of the bypass. He emphasised the necessity of having State Government backing for the project to be able to proceed to Federal Government level.

"We were very appreciative of the hour that the Deputy Prime Minister was able to spend with us today," said Mayor, Cr Jenny Houlihan. "He has given us some excellent feedback and seemed genuinely interested in the development of our regional area."

"We now have some timelines to work to and whilst they are very tight the need for the bypass is unquestionable for this region. This project has been on the drawing board for too long. In addition to the Federal funding we need to obtain State Government support as well," said Cr Houlihan.