Four of the five Ripon hopefuls came together last Tuesday morning for the State Election Candidates Forum at the Ararat RSL.

They were joined by about 80 leaders in business and industry to discuss the issues that are most important to them.

Health, transport and renewable energy all featured, however, it was support for small business that garnered the most attention.

Responding to a question about the plans and initiatives that are being considered to encourage business to invest in rural communities, all four candidates provided their ideas to recruit and retain staff.

Liberal Party candidate Louise Staley said over the past four years the Napthine Government had concentrated on sound economic management as the basis for people being able to get on with businesses and their lives.

"Getting jobs into the region and providing employment is the key driver of our prosperity and to keeping our communities thriving," she said.

"We need to get our freight, our roads and rail right for business to be able to move their goods around and that's one of the key investments that our government will continue with."

The Labor Party's candidate Daniel McGlone was eager to remind attendees that under the Coalition youth unemployment had risen to levels not seen for close to two decades.

"Our main concern in terms of this campaign is unemployment and also youth unemployment which in the country I believe is now running at about 16 percent, which is absolutely appalling," he said.

Mr McGlone said his party's Back to Work policy was developed to target unemployment.

"What we hope to do is re-deploy $200 million from our Regional Development Fund to sponsor employers to employ more people, working collaboratively with businesses of all sizes for regional employment," he said.

Mr McGlone said Labor had also announced plans to re-establish technical schools and funding for TAFEs.

The Greens' candidate Rod May said 'lifting the lid' on the renewable energy sector would provide people in rural areas with access to jobs.

"We believe that is the next renaissance for rural Victoria - the wind, the solar and bio-energy industry," he said.

"We would bring about a Victorian RET (renewable energy target) should the Federal one fall over or be assassinated. We would also ensure that solar panels and installation of solar remained a priority.

"We would push for a bio-energy industry that could be located in part for a start, in the Ballarat West Employment Zone."

The Nationals' candidate Scott Tuner emphasised a focus on specialised training.

"We need to focus on training people for the right job, in the right manner to keep them here in town rather than having them chase jobs in Melbourne," he said.

The candidates were also quizzed about whether they had plans to remove some of the imposts on small business, specifically payroll tax, compliance burdens and red tape.

Mr May said he understands red tape can be a burden, however it is wrong to think there will be a 'renaissance' in employment by simply tweaking it.

"You need more than that, you need something of substance, you need long term plans and you need to be able to put those into effect with the support of government," he said.

Ms Staley pointed out that it was the Coalition that had seen to a cut in payroll tax at the last budget, however conceded more needed to be done.

"I'll be advocating further, strong and deep cuts in payroll tax and in fact moving towards - were the budget to allow it - the abolition of payroll tax," she said.

"I think it is a terrible tax on turnover and on employment, it is not an efficient tax."

Organised by the Ararat Regional Business Association (ARBA) and the Committee for Ballarat, moderator Judy Verlin said the event was a rare but great opportunity for those who attended to hear first hand from the candidates.

"It's not often that you have an opportunity for all the candidates to sit so closely together and to have breakfast, there is not many places in the world you would be able to experience that," she said.

The caretaker period for the 2014 Victorian election commences at 6pm tonight with voters to hand down their verdict on Saturday, November 29.