Victorian parties unveil duelling election commitments

Premier Jacinta Allan will promise to launch a publicly-owned apprenticeship academy at a meeting of Labor Party faithful on Saturday.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson will separately announce that one-quarter of all infrastructure funding will go to the regions if the Coalition is elected at the November state election.

The duelling commitments were made before Labor and Liberal party members separately met for their annual conferences on Saturday.

Labor has warned party members to prepare for possible protests.

Ms Allan said the State Electricity Commission (SEC)'s apprenticeship academy for electrical trades would support 2,000 placements over four years from January.

Apprentices would work on the SEC's renewable energy projects as well as private projects.

The government did not immediately put a dollar figure on the cost of employing the apprentices, which would be paid by the electricity commission or by private operators. But establishing the academy will cost the state $50 million.

Labor revived the electricity commission at the 2022 election and has continuously sought to remind Victorians that the former SEC was privatised in the 1990s by then Liberal premier Jeff Kennett.

Ms Allan will continue this trend on Saturday to claim the Coalition would slash services and jobs, which Ms Wilson has repeatedly laughed off.

The premier's father Peter lost his job at the SEC in 1992 and Mr Allan will address the state conference on Saturday.

"The SEC was a skilled job for life," Ms Allan will tell party members. "Then the Liberals got elected."

Ms Wilson, meanwhile, said regional Victorians have been overlooked after almost 12 years under Labor.

She announced that, if elected in November, 25 per cent of all infrastructure funding will go to the regions. One-quarter of Victorians live in the regions.

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) found that only 12 per cent of infrastructure funding reported in last year's state budget exclusively went to the regions. While there were more projects in these communities, they were smaller scale.

"For a decade under Labor, regional Victoria has been short-changed and overlooked," Wilson said ahead of her address to party members at the Liberal state council.

Investment per person in Melbourne was 56.6 per cent more than in the regions according to the analysis released last year, and requested by Victorian National Party Leader Danny O'Brien.

"The Nationals and Liberals are absolutely committed to making sure that we deliver for regional Victoria, that we get the infrastructure that we need, and that regional Victorians are looked after," Mr O'Brien said.

The opposition did not put a dollar value on the commitment.

Members from both parties will debate policy platforms at their separate events over the weekend.

Former federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane will also take over as Victorian Liberal president at the state council on Saturday, after infighting continued under Phil Davis.