The state government announced the new centre, to be built next to the Hopkins Correctional Centre, at a meeting with Ararat Rural City Council and Wimmera division police on Monday.

It is part of the response to the Harper Review into post-sentence management of serious sex offenders, which was undertaken in response to the murder of Melbourne teen Masa Vukotic.

The centre will have more security than Corella Place, which is also a residential centre for released sex offenders.

Fifty full-time jobs will be created at the new centre, while another 100 jobs will be created during construction. Corrections Minister and Western Victoria MP Gayle Tierney said it would be a fully secure centre to house offenders courts deemed not appropriate for release into the community.

“It picks up the recommendation that this is the way to go, to keep this cohort separate from other offenders,” she said.

“So there can be specific programs that are delivered to them to deal with the specific issues that they have.”

“It is not the government but the courts that determine the time period, so they have served their time but are deemed not appropriate to return to the community.”

The state government has also increased the accommodation for serious sex offenders, including a new centre at Langi Kal Kal prison.

There has also been an expansion of supervision orders for serious sex offenders to prevent violent acts.

Ararat mayor Paul Hooper said offenders housed in the new centre would be those deemed unsafe for Corella Place.

“These people have been assessed as being an unacceptable risk,” he said.

“So this puts a really high security facility around these people.”

Cr Hooper said Corrections Victoria was Ararat’s biggest employer.

“There are over 600 jobs here, full time, higher paid and secure for individuals, who are provided with a career path and other opportunities,” he said.

“The prison has just recruited 25 people and there is another recruitment program in a couple off months, I believe, so it is not just Ararat that benefits, but the surrounding area as well.”

Planning and design work for the centre is underway with the state government to start construction later this year.

It will open before the end of next year.

Ripon MP Louise Staley said she opposed the new facility because Ararat already had 100 per cent of the state’s residential homes for sex offenders.

“The broader community had no knowledge of what is being announced,” she said.

“I have had no consultation at all as the elected representative for this area and I think that is treating this community with contempt to not ask them if they want additional sex and violent offenders dumped into the community.

“There are 88 Victorian electorates, surely one of the other 87 could house these people.

“It is always a trade off between more jobs and the social stigma, the risk and the problems from hosting these facilities, the fact is they have been too gutless to come out and ask the community if they want this.”

Wimmera division police Superintendent Paul Margetts said police and engaged with Corrections Victoria, Hopkins Correctional Centre and Corella Place.

“We have got really robust response plans across the agencies,” he said.

“Those plans have been activated, so we know they work, and we look forward to enhancing those plans for the new facility.”