Gippsland let down by disappointing Labor budget
Liberal candidate for Gippsland Rohan Fitzgerald today said that the federal budget had badly let down the people of Gippsland.
Gippsland missed out from the city-centric Labor government, Rohan said. Like the rest of regional Australia we have missed out on all the critically needed services we deserve.
There was nothing for families to meet the increases in the spiralling costs of petrol, food and interest rates after Labor made a firm commitment to address cost of living increases.
And the budget missed the opportunity to protect jobs in our gas, oil and power industries as the region adapts to the demands of climate change.
As well as slashing money to effective rural programs across rural Australia, Labor failed to announce new money for badly needed infrastructure like roads, rail and water in our region. And it has failed to adequately fund Gippsland’s health and education needs.
Labor failed to meet its election promise of $140 million to fund the duplication of the Princes Highway between Sale and Traralgon. The budget papers show that the promise was dramatically downgraded to $500,000 for a study into the first stage of the work.”
The Coalition last year committed $250 million to the full highway duplication and has renewed that rock solid commitment since the election, Rohan said.
We are totally committed to fund the duplication,” Rohan said. “I want to fight to ensure the duplication of the highway not just between Traralgon and Sale, but on to Bairnsdale.
Labor’s plan to axe the $140 million and replace it with a study will delay work on a project that we all know is critically important to our region.”
Rohan also said that the budget contained no funding measure for the Yarram childcare centre, something that the Coalition had promised to fund to the tune of $1 million.
Rohan said that health in Gippsland had also been largely overlooked in the budget and expects that there will be more pressure on public beds at our local hospitals.
Furthermore, school facilities have been ignored and water infrastructure barely rates a mention, he said.
This has been a disappointing budget for our region; Gippslanders have every right to be frustrated that their needs have been ignored,” said Rohan.
As far as our farmers are concerned, the axing of the Regional Partnerships scheme and the Growing Regions programs is a real disappointment.
Farmers will lose out because agricultural programs worth $334 million last year have been cut by $114 million.
We need someone in parliament who’s not afraid to take the fight up to the government to get the services we need.
Now is not the time to put someone into parliament who won’t stand up for the people of Gippsland.”
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