Ian Campbell wraps up the NSW Budget, announced this week.
This week’s NSW Budget announcement saw substantial funds directed towards Queanbeyan and the Far South Coast, as the government looks to make good on the swag of local election commitments announced in the run-up to polling day last March.
Courthouse and bus service upgrades, as well as funds for a new respite facility for Queanbeyan are among the highlights for the Monaro region, as well as the government’s commitment to building a new High School in Bungendore. Meanwhile, a new hospital for Eurobodalla and a new TAFE for Batemans Bay were big ticket items for the Far South Coast.
Deputy Premier and local member, John Barilaro has described Tuesday’s news from Treasury as a “bucket of gold for the Monaro” while on the coast, Roads and Transport Minister and Member for Bega, Andrew Constance says, “the 2019-20 budget cements major project spending in the region and will continue to deliver hundreds of jobs and provide essential infrastructure.”
Big ticket items for Monaro:
- $9 million for the first stage of the Queanbeyan Courthouse upgrade
- $817,000 for the Braidwood Police Station upgrade
- Expansion of bus services in the Queanbeyan region
- Accessibility upgrades to the Queanbeyan Train Station
- $13 million for upgrades to Jindabyne, Thredbo and Perisher Police Stations
- $9.3 million Cooma Hospital
- $1 million for Cooma’s streetscape
- $20 million to seal Bobeyan Road
- $27 million for planning and land acquisition for Dunns Creek Road
- $10 million for major upgrades to Captains Flat Road
- $17.5 million to seal or re-seal eight core roads in the Snowy Monaro region
- $13 million for upgrades to Jindabyne, Thredbo and Perisher Police Stations
- $7 million to the Thredbo Valley Track extension
- $11.8 million for the Jindabyne Shared Trail
- $1 million for Cooma’s streetscape
- Separation of Jindabyne Central School
- New Bungendore High School
- Funding for a new school hall at Queanbeyan West Public School
- Funding for the next stage of Googong Public School
- New Jerrabomberra High School
- New Jindabyne TAFE Connected Learning Centre
- $15 million Cooma Sports Hub
- $590,000 Queanbeyan Tigerettes changerooms
- $750,000 for a new respite facility in Queanbeyan
“I am so proud to be delivering these important projects for the Monaro. We will see funding from this budget go to important initiatives that service the entire community. In addition, our government has laid out the plans for the next four years, with acknowledgment that our important election commitments will be funded in this term of government,” Mr Barilaro says.
Big ticket items for Far South Coast:
- New Eurobodalla Hospital
- Nelligen Bridge
- Water Filtration for Brogo, Bermagui, Bega and Tathra
- New Bega and Tathra Police Stations
- New Batemans Bay TAFE
- New Bega TAFE Specialist Trade Centre
- Eden Port Welcome Centre
- Continued Princes Highway upgrades including, Moruya Bypass
- Road sealing works on Towamba to Burragate Roads, Eden Port/Princes Highway connectivity and Tantawangalo Mountain Road.
- Community projects from playgrounds to sports grounds, halls and shared paths and road crossings
“Projects that will have such a massive impact on our local communities were promised and I am pleased to tell you all that they will be delivered across the Bega Valley and Eurobodalla shires,” Mr Constance says.
Those who sit on the opposite side of the Macquarie Street ‘Bear Pit’ say the Berejiklian and Barilaro government is softening the community up for more privatisation, job cuts and taxes increases after failing to plan for a downturn in the property market, falling GST receipts and budget blowouts on infrastructure projects.
Interim Labor Leader Penny Sharpe says within a few years debt will soar to $39 billion.
“The budget is cooked and we will pay for it with job cuts, more sell-offs and a reduction in essential services,” she says.
Shadow Treasurer Ryan Park says, “NSW has been sold a con job by the Liberals and Nationals. They said if you let us sell your assets we can build for the future. What they didn’t tell you is that future generations will have to pay for it with more debt, taxes, job cuts, and sell-offs.”
Original Article published by Ian Campbell on About Regional.
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