Shadow treasurer Ryan Park has slammed the State Government for its silence on steel on budget day.
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The Keira MP said the Baird government had missed its opportunity to match Labor’s commitment to support the struggling industry.
‘’Labor has announced a strong and positive plan to support the steel industry and the thousands of jobs that rely on it, by requiring 90 per cent use of Australian-made steel in all publicly funded projects across the state,’’ Mr Park said.
‘’(On budget day) we would have expected that Mike Baird and Gladys Berejiklian would have put forward their detailed plan for the future of steel, but they remained silent.
‘’People across the Illawarra, and broader NSW community, have every right to be disappointed.’’
Mr Park said as the third largest city in NSW, Wollongong should have received a ‘’fair deal’’ in the 2016 budget, but it didn’t get that.
‘’This government is number one at going slow when it comes to delivering on projects for the Illawarra,’’ he said. ‘’What we need to see is Bulli Hospital completed as soon as possible, but work hasn’t even started yet.
‘’We need to see funding for an important road link like the Memorial Drive extension to ease pressure as new estates are built in the northern suburbs.
‘’And while the government tipped in some money for school maintenance, it’s not going to make any real dent to the problems in schools in the Illawarra.’’
Funding for the southern Illawarra was also lacking according to Shellharbour MP Anna Watson, who said the budget delivered ‘’no big bang’’ for the region.
‘’There’s no new funding for the promised $800 million in investment for the upgrade of Shellharbour Hospital and the construction of the Albion Park Rail Bypass,’’ she said.
‘’What we’ve got is the same old paper shuffling, the same old planning funds. The government has been planning longer than six years now – by the time these two important pieces of infrastructure get started it will be nearly a decade.
‘’While this government is focused on Sydney, people continue to stew in their cars at Albion Park and wait longer to seek treatment at Shellharbour Hospital.’’
Wollongong MP Noreen Hay said the budget was a ‘’slap in the face’’ for the region. ‘’After six years of this government, the people of Wollongong have seen nothing but cuts to their health and education services, no investment in job creation and badly needed infrastructure, still no lifts at Unanderra station and no commitment to the convention centre as an extention of Wollongong entertainment centre.’’