The acting Minister for the Illawarra Andrew Constance yesterday tried to dismiss complaints over the disparity between the NSW government's treatment of Wollongong and Newcastle as "parochialism and politics".
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Mr Constance was speaking after Treasurer Mike Baird announced on Tuesday that half - or $340 million - of the proceeds from the lease of Newcastle's port would be injected into a "new vision" for the city.
Last year the Illawarra was promised $100 million - or 14 per cent - of the $760 million lease of Port Kembla for an Illawarra Infrastructure Fund.
Of that, just $20 million was delivered to the region in this week's budget.
Mr Constance, who has stepped in while Minister for the Illawarra Greg Pearce takes one month’s paid stress leave, was keen to defend his government after Labor MPs said it was treating Illawarra residents like ‘‘second class citizens’’.
However, he did not want to discuss whether Wollongong and Newcastle were being treated equally.
‘‘You’re asking me to participate in parochial politics which I am not going to do because I don’t believe that’s in the state’s interest,’’ he said.
Instead, the Bega MP said the Illawarra needed to ‘‘look at the budget in its entirety, not just through the prism of the Port Kembla transaction’’.
‘‘I’d make the observation that the benefits derived from the respective port transactions are designed for the benefit of the people of NSW,’’ he said.
‘‘We are a state government...we have a whole state to govern for, including regions like my own down the coast.’’
Despite the Illawarra Infrastructure Fund being set at $100million last year, Mr Constance argued the port transaction had delivered $270million to the Illawarra because it allowed $170million to be spent on the Berry Bypass.
He refused to discuss why Newcastle received a larger share of its port lease.
‘‘This parochialism isn’t helping anybody,’’ he said.
‘‘My job as acting minister is to represent the Illawarra, and I make this very strong point that we have $270million being spent in the region and we have significant dollars going in across all portfolios to Wollongong,’’ he said.
‘‘I’d reiterate that the Illawarra community has the enormous opportunity to bring forward ideas, instead of governments saying ‘this is how we are going to spend the $100million’.’’
Mr Constance said the Newcastle central business district faced different issues to the Illawarra, but conceded he did not know when he’d last been to the Wollongong CBD.
‘‘If you were to go and visit Newcastle it is clearly a business district which has suffered enormously,’’ he said.
‘‘I couldn’t tell you the last date I was in Wollongong off hand but, you know, I’m well aware of the issues facing the Illawarra because I share the media market down the coast.
‘‘I’m sure there’s people in other regions who don’t enjoy the benefits of regional funds ...and it’s important to note that we are very keen to work with the Illawarra community and the Hunter community on their respective infrastructure funds.’’
He said only $20million of the Illawarra Infrastructure Fund had been delivered this year because of the ongoing consultation process to find a project to spend the money on.
‘‘But the $100million is there,’’ he said.
