Wollongong is getting only a tiny sliver of the proceeds from the state government's "asset recycling", according to Illawarra Business Chamber boss Adam Zarth.
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The Wollongong local government area (LGA) has contributed to this recycling, via the 99-year lease of Port Kembla.
The proceeds from this and other moves - including the leasing of half of the poles and wires - and the $4.3 billion windfall from the sale of the Snowy Hydro - has created the Restart NSW funding pool of more than $33 billion.
Mr Zarth claims almost all of that funding has bypassed the Wollongong LGA.
"To date, Wollongong has received an unacceptably low 0.3 per cent of the total investment from the proceeds of the state government's asset privatisations," Mr Zarth said.
The business chamber executive director did point out the government put $100 million from the proceeds of the port lease into the Illawarra Infrastructure Fund.
Also, $1 million a year in funding for 99 years flows to the region via the Port Kembla Community Investment Fund.
"And that is practically where the fairness ends," Mr Zarth said.
Wollongong residents are ineligible for the government's new $250 seniors travel card because it was not a "regional" area - a definition that made it difficult for the city to compete for funding.
"This leaves us to compete for infrastructure funding against the greater Sydney basin, which is hoovering up billions to deliver WestConnex, Sydney Metro City and Southwest and Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1," Mr Zarth said.
The business chamber boss said there was a number of "critical" Wollongong infrastructure projects.
"The upgrade of Picton Road to motorway standard is imperative to allow the economies and the workforces of the Illawarra and southwestern Sydney to leverage off one another," Mr Zarth said.
"And with our creaking South Coast line reaching freight capacity by 2030, it is time to examine an alternative rail linkage to southwestern Sydney and the [Badgery's Creek] aerotropolis."
A spokesman for NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said more than $1.1 billion in funding had been committed to Illawarra projects from the Restart NSW fund.
However, this figure would include funds delivered to the Shellharbour and Kiama LGAs.
"Projects which may not fall within a specific LGA can have significant benefits for adjacent communities, such as improving commuting times, creating employment and promoting economic development," the spokesman for the Treasurer said.
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
