In the five weeks since controversy erupted over the different treatment of Newcastle and Wollongong in the NSW budget, there have been five ministerial visits to the region.

Acting Minister for the Illawarra Andrew Constance visited twice, and Illawarra Minister Greg Pearce  last week made Port Kembla his first official stop after a month on stress leave.

Smoke and mirrors used to cover up port injustice

Just after the budget announcement, Education Minister Adrian Piccoli visited a Warilla school to highlight a program implemented by his government last year and Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian visited Kiama to ‘‘inspect’’ a yet-to-be-built car park.

Mr O’Farrell yesterday denied the frequent visits were an attempt to show his government still cared about the region, despite giving Newcastle three times more money from the lease of its port than the Illawarra received from the lease of Port Kembla.

He also confirmed he had no plans to increase Wollongong’s $100million infrastructure fund.

‘‘I expect my ministers – whether it’s the Premier or the most junior minister – to get out and about across NSW listening to people and seeing first hand what issues exist,’’ he said.

The reason for the Premier’s visit was to officially open the state’s first NSW government Service Centre, which replaces a number of outlets including Roads and Maritime Services, Births, Deaths and Marriages and Fair Trading.

He also inspected Princes Highway roadworks at Gerringong and opened Gareth Ward’s new electorate office.

Mr O’Farrell told a crowd of Kiama residents the town’s service centre had been the first in NSW to open because of their ‘‘very vigorous local member’’.

‘‘Gareth does an absolutely terrific job – terrific to the point of painful at times in the way he lobbies ministers and twists our arm in order to ensure this region gets the...funding it deserves,’’ Mr O’Farrell said.

‘‘It’s no coincidence that the first service centre in the state is in Kiama – it’s here because it was the easiest way to get Gareth out of my office.’’

Mr O’Farrell also compared Mr Ward to the royal baby, even suggesting the new prince should be named Gareth.

Despite the lofty praise, Mr O’Farrell said there were no immediate plans to give Mr Ward the job of Illawarra minister.

He said Mr Pearce had been doing a good job of the role since returning from stress leave.

‘‘Gareth has a strong future, but I have no plans to reshuffle the ministry,’’ he said. 

‘‘I think [Mr Pearce has] worked hard over the past 10 days, he’s getting on with the job and clearly there were health issues that were the reason he took sick leave.’’

Shellharbour MP Anna Watson yesterday said it did not matter how often NSW ministers visited  if they did not increase the region’s share of  port lease funds.

‘‘Newcastle was made the centrepiece of the 2013-14 budget with its $340-million port deal,’’ she said. 

‘‘The Illawarra was left with only a miserable $100 million.’’