Wentworth misses out in state budget, say politicians

THE NSW Budget does not appear to have yielded any headline investments for Wentworth Shire, according to local politicians.

At first glance there is no immediate detail regarding funding for specific “big ticket” projects in the shire, apart from a continuation of funding for the Wentworth Health Service Redevelopment.

Member for Murray Helen Dalton welcomed the announcement of funding for other projects in her electorate, but said her constituents expected “a lot more”.

She pointed to a list of “areas of need” that missed out on funding, including the Pooncarie Airstrip, and the Pooncarie weir and fish trap.

“Ultimately this is a case of thanks, but more please,” Mrs Dalton said.

Wentworth Shire Mayor Daniel Linklater echoed the sentiment.

“At first glance, there’s really not much to see here in terms of new money,” Cr Linklater said.

He did praise the government for allocating $253.7 million to bolster the state’s planning system, and speed up the assessment of development applications.

“Whilst not specific to Wentworth, increasing the ease with which you can submit planning proposals is probably a good thing across the board,” Cr Linklater said.

He said he was not confident that a big focus of this year’s state budget, housing and social housing, would trickle down to Wentworth Shire.

“We’ve got a couple of projects that we’ve already been pushing for in Wentworth and it’s sort of, at this point, fallen on deaf ears, but we’ll keep pursuing that, obviously,” he said.

Cr Linklater said he was hopeful Wentworth Shire could tap into a $159.3 million top-up of the Infrastructure Betterment Fund, to forge ahead with some key road condition projects.

“Jenny Aitchison, the Regional Roads minister, she’s one of the few ministers that’s actually visited the shire and we thank her for that,” he said.

“She’s quite aware of the condition of roads and different priorities that we’ve got.”

He referenced a $50 injection into the Regional Development Trust Fund that was established last year, where councils could apply for a share of $15 million for airport improvements.

“Pooncarie relies on the Royal Flying Doctor Service for provision of health services, so it’s fairly critical infrastructure,” Cr Linklater said.

“Certainly the Pooncarie aerodrome upgrade is something that we’ll be pushing for to come out of that fund.”