Regional Victoria should split from its "city-based overlords" because it is sick of the Melbourne-centric parliament, one of the state's newest politicians declares.
Liberal Democratic Party upper house MP Tim Quilty used his maiden speech on Tuesday to rally for regional Victoria and NSW, where he was born, to get rid of their capitals.
"If the people of Wodonga, Bendigo, Mildura, Wangaratta and Shepparton dictated the lives of Melburnians the way that you dictate our lives, there would be riots in the streets," he told parliament.
"Imagine if we blocked off a section of Melbourne and said you could not work there because of a rare and attractive pigeon? What if we decided to regulate latte art patterns?"
Dubbing the move a "Rexit" he nominated his town of Wodonga as the new regional capital, with parliament to sit in the local RSL until a purpose-built headquarters is completed.
"The people of northern Victoria want their voices to be heard. We won't stand by any longer while city people who know nothing about us try to destroy our culture and way of life."
Mr Quilty said he would fight for firearm owners, farmers, decentralisation, drug law reform and the regions while opposing the creation of new national parks.
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