It seems even the Prime Minister thinks the Illawarra is a regional area.
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Malcolm Turnbull visited the Port Kembla steelworks on Monday to officially announce Australia would be exempt from the United States’ planned 25 per cent tariff on steel.
During a media conference, Mr Turnbull was asked about the federal government’s decision to overlook the Illawarra’s South Coast line for funding.
The federal government had allocated $20 million for its Faster Rail Prospectus, which would provide funding to investigate ways to make for a quicker commute between Sydney and regional areas.
Transport for NSW put in proposals for three lines – one of which was the South Coast line.
However, the federal government opted for another TfNSW proposal to address the needs of the line between Sydney and Newcastle.
That proposal aimed to come up with ways to cut that travel time by around an hour.
On Monday, Mr Turnbull said the project funding was for “feasibility studies”.
He also said the South Coast line could benefit from NSW’s $4.1 billion share from the purchase of the Snowy Hydro scheme because the state government has promised it would be spent in regional areas.
“In terms of the South Coast line, there is always the opportunity for the state government to invest in that line, and we’d expect them to do so,” Mr Turnbull said.
“The Treasurer is writing NSW a check for over $4 billion for the sale of their share of Snowy Hydro and the state government has said all of that will go into regional NSW.
“So there’s plenty of money there.”
But while the federal Liberal Party might think the Illawarra is regional, the state Liberals don’t.
In state parliament last week Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the Illawarra was a region, “but that doesn’t make it regional”.
The issue of improved rail services between the Illawarra and Sydney was even canvassed on the ABC show Q&A on Monday night.
The panelists were asked if better rail would reduce the population pressure on Sydney.
Grattan Institute CEO John Daley said perhaps making the region a “dormitory suburb” of Sydney might not actually be a good thing for the Illawarra.
“Why would I bother doing that rather than just making sure that the rail link works from the edge of Sydney, which is by definition, closer than either Newcastle or Wollongong?” he said
“I think what you’ll find is that commuting all the way to Sydney from Newcastle and from Wollongong is actually a lot harder than it sounds.”