🦎 Council’s 10-year plan outlines financial woes

Plus: Are petrol cars on the way out?

Author

Jacob Wallace
November 14, 2025

⏱️ This edition of our newsletter is a six-minute read.

👋 Hello Gippslanders, it’s Jacob here.

🎊 I hope you all had a great week. In this Friday edition of our newsletter we’re talking about:

  • Electric vehicles (EV) sales around the country are on the rise and Gippsland is no different.

  • Latrobe City Council faces tough choices as its 10-year financial plan highlights risk to services and infrastructure.

  • Victoria’s new youth crime laws.

✍️ On Wednesday I published a story about data that shows new EV sales reached their highest quarterly percentage around the country. To get an understanding of whether this trend was taking place locally I spoke to the sales manager at Valley Kia in Traralgon, Hayden Britten, who told me their EV sales had jumped from 1.3 percent of new cars sold last year to 5.3 percent this year.

Cars with an internal combustion engine fell below 70 percent market share for the first time since data collection began in 1991.

From a report by the Australian Automobile Association.

🎤 This week I spoke to Latrobe City Mayor Dale Harriman about a few different local issues, including the council’s 10-year plan and how it highlighted potential risk to delivery of services and infrastructure projects. Have a read of that story here.

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

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🚀 Alright, let’s jump into the Monitor’s latest yarns, local interviews and silly videos!

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

Electric and hybrid vehicles now make up more than a quarter of new auto sales, as the market share for cars powered by internal combustion engines fell to less than 70 percent for the first time.

What happened: A report from the Australian Automobile Association showed electric vehicle (EV) sales accounted for 9.7 percent of new vehicle sales in the three months to September. 

This is the highest quarterly proportion for EV sales recorded in Australia since data collection began in 1991. 

In the previous three-month April to June period, they accounted for 9.3 percent of overall car sales; in the corresponding three-month period in 2024, they represented 6.6 percent of all sales.

Hybrid cars represented 16.5 percent of overall sales (49,929).

The data also showed that in the three months to September 2025, cars with an internal combustion engine fell below 70 percent market share (69.65 percent) for the first time. This is down 12 percent from two years ago. In Victoria, the proportion of internal combustion engine cars sold fell to 68 percent.

If you peer into Latrobe City's financial crystal ball, you will see a big black hole.

The city’s councillors are facing the same challenge as many others in the state, trying to make ends meet while the state palms off projects and services to local government.

What happened: At a council meeting on October 27, Latrobe City councillors endorsed the staff’s 10-year financial plan, which identified the resources required to deliver council services, infrastructure projects and other priorities over the coming decade.

Councillor Darren Howe told the meeting the plan was of “major concern”, as it highlighted a risk to the council's ability to deliver services.

🗣️ “The plan makes it clear that the council cannot sustainably continue to provide existing services at current levels and maintain infrastructure into the future,” Howe said. “This means difficult decisions will need to be made in the coming years to ensure financial sustainability.”

LOOKING STATEWIDE 👀

My colleague Archie Milligan from The National Account put this story together about Victoria’s new youth crime laws. The legislation means children aged 14 and over who commit violent crimes will treated by the judicial system as an adult.

Take a look at a video on the story below.

Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Monitor. I hope you enjoyed this Friday issue of our newsletter and are able to make the most of your weekend.

I’ll be back in your inbox next Tuesday with more local yarns, fun videos and informative articles. If there’s something you’d like to share with us, whether it’s a photo of a sunset in Gippsland or some local town gossip you think needs to be reported, then shoot us an email at [email protected].

Cheers,
Jacob & the Gippsland Monitor team