Labor candidate for Goulburn, Ursula Stephens says Goulburn is being left behind in the State budget as the government opts for a “Sydney stadium splurge.”
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“Rather than spend the money raised from the privatisation of public assets on hospitals and schools, the NSW Government is obsessed with spending $2.2 billion on Sydney stadiums,” she said.
“Despite many calls for regional investment, the government’s eighth budget did not include any money for:
- Replacement of the 51 demountables in local schools - instead the budget revealed plans to increase the number of demountables in NSW to 5301;
- The Goulburn Aquatic Centre;
- The Yass Valley pipeline;
- Lackey Park upgrade.”
However the council has applied for $10 million under the State’s Sports Infrastructure Fund for the aquatic centre’s upgrade, which is separate to the budget process.
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Dr Stephens also said the budget didn’t have any measures to tackle the growing cost of living pressures such as electricity bills, which she claimed had risen by 58 per cent, and increasing rents and rising median house prices amid a property boom.
“This is a reckless budget that has sold off over $50 billion of public revenue-generating assets and risks the delivery of essential services,” she said.
“It’s a Sydney-centric budget and the regions miss out again. Hidden in the budget tables are cuts to local library funding for local councils of more than $25m – or almost one fifth of library funding. The cost shifting to local government continues unabated, with no financial compensation.
“Important local projects didn’t get a guernsey. I’m disappointed that the Goulburn electorate has missed out again in this reckless $87 billion pre-election splurge. It shows that after eight long years the Liberal-National Government’s wrong priorities are hurting our local community.”