Population plan a key to Vic election win

Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy says highlighting ways to manage Victoria's ever expanding population could be the key to a 2018 election win.

Victoria's booming population could choke major arterials and clog up public transport hubs if nothing is done to recognise the challenges it brings, opposition leader Matthew Guy says.

He announced his party's Population Taskforce at the Liberal Party of Australia State Council in Melbourne on Sunday, saying it would play a major role in the lead-up to the 2018 election.

The taskforce will identify and highlight ways to regionalise population growth in a bid to take the pressure off Melbourne and its infrastructure.

Those findings will form the basis of detailed policies before the next election.

Each year, Victoria's population grows by about 100,000 people - 92 per cent of those in Greater Melbourne.

"We will turn into a state of cities, not just a city state," Mr Guy told the Liberal Party faithful in Melbourne on Sunday.

A Liberal Victorian government will also crack down on gun violence across the state if elected, with Mr Guy announcing they will make drive-by shootings a criminal offence.

Under those laws, firing a gun from a vehicle will be a criminal offence punishable by up to 25 years in jail with a statutory minimum of five years of imprisonment.


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Source: AAP



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