Shadow Minister Media Releases
Liberal & Nationals Plan To Kick Start NSW Regions (15/06/2010)
Ballina MP and Shadow Minister for North Coast, Don Page says the Liberal & Nationals policy announcement to kick start NSW regions will benefit the North Coast of NSW.
“The Sydney-centric NSW Labor Government has not heard the cries of regional NSW including the North Coast. It has never responded to the increasing needs caused by population growth in regions such as the North Coast,” Mr Page said.
“We need a new plan, fresh ideas to get NSW going again.”
The NSW Liberal & Nationals have announced two key strategies to rebuild and restart regional areas. They are Restart NSW and the Jobs Action Plan.
Restart NSW is a new $5billion infrastructure fund to rebuild NSW crumbling infrastructure. Thirty per cent of this fund or $1.6billion will be spent on infrastructure in regional areas.
“This additional funding for regional NSW over and above our Infrastructure NSW fund, will mean that the Pacific Highway upgrade will no longer be stalled and vital health infrastructure will finally be delivered,” Mr Page said.
Restart NSW will be funded through the reinvestment of windfall revenues such as tax income over and above what is expected, new Waratah Bonds and unlocking $1.2billion tied up in Sydney’s desalination plant.
The Liberal & Nationals policy also includes a strategy to create regional jobs.
“The Jobs Action Plan which will create 100,000 new jobs in NSW, will guarantee 40,000 of those jobs for Regional NSW,” Mr Page said.
“The number of jobs created are based on an average wage of $72,500 p.a. So for areas like the North Coast where the average wage is much lower, there is the potential for a much higher number of jobs to be created.
“Twenty five per cent of the NSW population currently reside outside of the Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong areas yet we are going to get 40% of the new jobs created under our Jobs Action Plan and 30% of additional infrastructure funding. The Nationals are punching above their weight for regional areas,” he said.
“To prioritise 40% of the new jobs into regional areas will go a long way to closing the gap between regional and metropolitan NSW,” Mr Page said.
After 15 years of a Sydney-centric Labor Government the regions desperately need a kick start.
