Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss confirmed to the Mercury that his government would not be funding a number of Labor's commitments including $42 million for the upgrade of Mount Ousley Road and $7.4 million for the region's new football headquarters at Dapto.

His office was unable to confirm if $50 million allotted to attract private funding for the Maldon-Dombarton rail link would go ahead.

However, serious doubt has been cast over the Coalition's commitment to the freight rail line, given contracts had not been signed for the work.

In addition, $1.25 million for Gerringong School of Arts and $500,000 for a wharf at Shellharbour announced by deputy PM Anthony Albanese a week before the election are now in doubt.

These, along with the home of football, were to be funded through round five of the RDA Illawarra fund but will now have to be reassessed under the Coalition's new National Stronger Regions fund.

A spokesman for Mr Truss, Brett Heffernan, said the Coalition had promised it would honour any Labor projects with signed contracts but as the Illawarra projects were uncontracted, they would have to be reassessed.

"They haven't been assessed and allocated money," he said.

" ... one of the problems a lot of areas are facing is that the government went along, prior to the election, and announced money for projects all over the country, knowing [there] was no money in the kitty for it because it was contingent on the mining tax; secondly, they went out there in the shadow of what they were expecting to be election doom and made promises they knew they would never need to keep."

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An $84 million upgrade to Mount Ousley Road was announced in the May budget and was set to be jointly funded by the state and federal governments.

However, Mr Heffernan said no money had been spent on the project to date, meaning it would not go ahead under the Coalition.

Throsby MP Stephen Jones labelled the decision "outrageous".

"These projects are affordable and necessary; this just shows contempt for the region," he said.

"All of these projects had bipartisan support in the local area; I'd like to see whether this decision has been extended to each and every project around the country."

Cunningham MP Sharon Bird said it was a petty and mean move by the Coalition.

"It's disgraceful. I'm in shock that they could just knock these projects on the head so quickly," she said.

"These projects were in the budget and had been announced for funding ... for the government not to proceed on that is just petty and mean. They claim to be taking the region seriously but it's just not the case."

Both the Labor MPs said they would continue to fight for the projects, believing they were right for the region.

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Football South Coast chief executive Ann-Marie Balliana remained confident of retaining funding for the Dapto football development.

She accepted the new government would want to "cast their eye" over any funding approvals but was confident the project presented a worthy case for the new fund.

"When you look at the [fund], it is all about growing jobs and improving community facilities, so it would be hard to argue the [project] doesn't meet that criteria."

Shellharbour Mayor Marianne Saliba was disappointed plans for Shellharbour wharf would have to be reassessed, given the time dedicated to the previous application.

"We spent so much work preparing the application, we submitted it in round three and weren't successful and then resubmitted it and it was accepted so we're ready to go with it. We're just waiting on the money," she said.

"It feels like we're back to square one now; this will affect the community - the reason we wanted the project was because we have a lot of recreational boating people who use the facility, so we wanted to give them an opportunity."

"It doesn't surprise me [that the decision was made]; I did half expect [it] but it doesn't make it any less disappointing."

Kiama Mayor Brian Petschler agreed but hoped the new fund would view the Gerringong project as a priority.

The doubt over the Illawarra projects comes as the Coalition government announced it would axe the Department of Regional Australia.

Regional development and local government will now fall under the Department of Infrastructure.

Acting opposition spokesperson for regional Australia Catherine King said this move would make it difficult for regional areas to secure support and funding from the federal government.

"It already appears clear that the Coalition will also not honour funding for 103 projects across regional Australia with a combined project value of more than $1 billion, which I signed off on as minister but for which contracts were not concluded before the election," Ms King said.

She said it is evidence of the Coalition's apathy towards regional Australia.