We need a real investment of funds to ensure our country communities continue to thrive.

Regional Victoria represents 25 per cent of the state’s population, yet under Labor’s budget last year we received less than 3 per cent of the state’s infrastructure funding.

It is a shame that it has taken major flooding events to get Lowan on the radar of the Andrews Labor Government.

Labor ministers visited Horsham on Wednesday for the state’s first Regional Partnership Assembly.

Local people will be investing their personal time to share ideas on how we can make Lowan a better place. It is therefore important we receive our fair share of funding to make our ideas a reality, otherwise this will just be another Labor talk fest.

One of the issues likely to be raised is going to be the appalling state of our roads.

With a number of Labor ministers in Horsham this week, it iwa a perfect opportunity for them to witness the dangerous condition of our roads and immediately reverse their severe cuts to the country roads budget.

The Nationals are proud to stand up for regional Victoria and I assure the people of the Lowan electorate that I will continue to fight for our fair share of funding so our communities have the jobs, investment and services we need to thrive.

- Lowan MP Emma Kealy

RECENTLY, the New South Wales Government released figures on reported child marriages in the state.

They found 73 cases has been reported since 2014. This revelation caused a wave of anger and outrage from public commentators and politicians, some of whom singled out local religious groups. 

Let’s be clear that child marriage is irrefutably wrong and a violation of girls rights.

Worldwide there are an estimated 70 million child brides. Around 40,000 girls are married before they turn 18 every single day.

Girls who marry early are robbed of a future, they are denied schooling and are put at grave risk of dying from complications of pregnancy.

Plan International is working to end this illegal practice worldwide and has made significant headway. These achievements have been made, not with anger, but with care.

Earlier this year, Zambia, a country with one of the highest rates of child marriage, pledged to end child marriage by 2030.

With Plan’s support, girls in Malawi recently successfully petitioned their government to take child marriage seriously in the eyes of the law. 

To make real sustainable change, we work closely with parents, men, boys, governments and community leaders to change attitudes and long-held cultural beliefs. And importantly, we must work to empower girls to understand their right to say no.

It is simplistic and wrong to say that child marriage is a religious practice related solely to Islam.

It is actually a very complex practice that exists among many cultures and religions and often parents feel they are given no choice in times of conflict or extreme hardship.

Is child marriage misguided and wrong? Yes. But ill-intentioned? Often times not. 

Responding with anger is not going to solve child marriage.

We need to work at all levels of the community to create lasting political and social change to end this practice here at home and worldwide.

People can help us to continue our work to end girls’ rights abuses by donating at www.plan.org.au/becauseiamagirl

- Susanne Legena, Deputy CEO of Plan International Australia