Sometimes politics can be a game of smoke and mirrors.

Like a magician on stage, a politician can stand in front of an audience and try to convince them that their eyes are deceiving them - that what they see right in front of their faces isn't actually true, isn't actually happening.

In the world of politics, the conjuror's trick is often used when trying to explain away some unpalatable reality - one that, say, involves two regions seeing their port leased, perhaps.

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One region, lets call it the Illawarra, is promised $100 million from the proceeds.

This is money that would be over and above anything else the region might receive, says the Treasurer. It is money that was "set in stone".

That port then goes for $260 million more than the expected $500 million figure.

Then there's the other region, which we could call the Hunter. As part of that announcement, this Hunter region is promised $340 million from a deal that was expected to bring in $700 million.

To anyone looking at those two figures, it would seem the Hunter has been promised $240 million more than the Illawarra. That the Illawarra got just 13 per cent of the proceeds of its lease while the Hunter has been promised a whopping 43 per cent of the expected money that will come in.

But in the days since the 2013 budget was handed down, Liberal politicians have put on their magician's capes and magic wands and tried to show us that, no, that's just not the case. Their aim is to fill in that huge gap of $240 million with various other projects and say: "See, it's really all the same. You're not getting less at all."

One way this has happened in the past week is through the addition of the $170 million for the Berry bypass stage of the Princes Highway upgrades, as though they'd promised us all along that the amount we were originally promised was $270 million, not $100 million.

"When we went to tender for [Port Kembla], we expected to gain $500 million," Kiama MP Gareth Ward said last week. "And before we went to tender, we made it clear we would return $100 million for a new infrastructure fund and $170 million for the Princes Highway."

That may be true but when Treasurer Mike Baird mentioned in his June 2012 budget speech that Port Kembla would be up for lease, he promised: "From the proceeds, we will invest up to $100 million in infrastructure in the Illawarra as determined by Infrastructure NSW."

No mention of the Princes Highway funding was included. In fact, four months passed before Treasurer Baird was reported as linking the port and the highway.

On October 17, 2012, Mr Baird told Parliament how the future of the highway upgrades and a range of other projects hinged on the leasing of the port.

"Without this transaction, those projects cannot proceed," Mr Baird said.

Two days later, Mr Ward made what appears to be his first reported comment linking the port with the highway. He said: "What we are doing is leasing assets and recycling those funds back into infrastructure like the Princes Highway."

Looking through news stories from the release of the budget in June through to October 17, 2012, there is not a single report of any Liberal politician saying the region was getting $270 million.

So it would seem that it wasn't until four months after the 2012 budget that the government tacked on the cost of the highway and made $100 million magically seem like $270 million.

No-one is claiming that the upgrades to the Princes Highway are unwelcome or a waste of money - it's quite the opposite.

But the reality is clear - when the leasing of the two ports were announced, the government came out and promised $100 million for us and $340 million for Newcastle.

That's where the comparison should end - adding in funds from other projects several months after the initial announcement is simply misleading.

What the government is doing is comparing two things that aren't even the same - it's "money promised to Newcastle" compared to "money promised to the Illawarra plus some other funding that we've chucked in so that the $240 million gap doesn't look so obvious".

Really, if the government is going to add a $170-million road project to our cut of the port, it's only fair to add a road project in the Hunter to its tally. So lets pick the state and federal-funded Hunter Expressway, allocated $222 million in the NSW budget.

Add that to the port figure and the funding rises to $562 million. Is it unfair of us to add a large, expensive road project to bump up the Hunter port proceeds? Probably, but then it must surely be equally unfair to do the same where the Illawarra is concerned.

Incidentally, Mr Baird responded yesterday to Wollongong City Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery's calling the disparity in the port payouts as "a slap in the face of the greatest order".

Mr Baird said Cr Bradbery was "jumping the gun" because the lease had yet to happen and "making assertions on hypothetical proceeds seems premature".

Well, if that's the case, then surely it must also be premature to promise these "hypothetical proceeds" to Newcastle.

Another way a conjurer gets away with things is by diverting our attention - making the audience look in one direction and away from the things he'd prefer they didn't see.

A day after the budget was announced and the stark disparity between port proceeds was laid bare in the Illawarra Mercury, the government announced what might be seen by the cynical as a distraction - that there was money in the budget for work on the F6 extension.

And there was - $1 million listed among road projects for St George and Sutherland. Given the road is a long-sought-after piece of infrastructure in the region, it seemed curious that the O'Farrell government waited almost two days to inform the Illawarra of this funding.

Then, the following day, there was the leaked news that the aero-medical service would remain at Albion Park. Shellharbour MP Anna Watson commented on the timing, considering the report on the chopper was not due to be released until next month.

"This announcement," Ms Watson said, "comes just days after the Illawarra community revolted in disgust over the NSW government's underwhelming budget and the disclosure that the region has been dudded from its port sale in comparison with Newcastle."

Also, since the bad news the budget brought down, ministers have been flocking to the region to show they care.

On Friday, Acting Minister for the Illawarra Andrew Constance was in town, as was Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian.

The latter was here to look at a new car park at Kiama station and the empty field where the Shell Cove station will go.

On Monday, the very next working day, Education Minister Adrian Piccoli visited Warilla North Public School.

Having three state ministers visit in the space of two working days is an unusual occurrence. Especially when there's no election on.

If nothing else, it shows the Liberal Party is worried about what the region might think.

Unfortunately, they didn't think about that before the budget.

TOP  BUDGET ITEMS

ILLAWARRA

• $128million: Services for people with a disability, their families and careers.

• $115million: Princes Highway upgrade between Mt Pleasant and Toolijooa Road.

• $45.8million: Wollongong Hospital Elective Surgery Unit.

• $19million: Foxground and Berry bypass.

• $11.5million: Wollongong Hospital car park extension.

Total: $319.3million.

HUNTER

• $585 million: Funds to launch National Disability Insurance Scheme.

• $340 million: Revitalisation of the Newcastle CBD.

• $222 million: Hunter Expressway.

• $133million: Water and sewerage network.

• $63million: Newcastle court building construction.

• $30million: Newcastle inner-city bypass.

Total: $1.4 billion.

Note: Only state government spending specifically directed at each region was considered.