Member for Nanango, Deb Frecklington says Labor is pulling the wool over the eyes of the Nanango Electorate with their newly announced ‘Building our Regions’ program being only half of what the LNP promised.
Mrs Frecklington says she is extremely disappointed that the highly successful ‘Royalties for the Regions’ funding program, started under the LNP, is being scrapped.
“We established the Royalties for the Regions program as soon as we were elected in 2012 to end Labor’s shameful neglect of regional areas like the Nanango Electorate,” Mrs Frecklington said.
“Labor never cared and had no policy to look after country regions. Now, they are putting in a half-hearted effort and trying to convince us that their funding is an infrastructure bonanza, when it really is nothing like that.
“Labor have single-handedly reduced the amount we had pledged to the regions – $500 million over to just $200 million - and they are trying to make that seem like a good thing.
“In my Electorate of Nanango, Royalties for the Regions brought great benefits for the region, with more than $25 million for projects like new overtaking lanes, and dangerous intersections.
In the Somerset, $1.65 million went towards four new bridges including:
In the South Burnett we also saw a major commitment of $10million for the upgrade of the Kingaroy Wastewater Treatment Plant, a project which had to be done, but for which the local Council had no funding.
“The Labor program really does show absolute disregard for rural and regional areas. The LNP understands regional areas like the Nanango Electorate is the engine room of our State economy and resource rich regions like ours deserve to see the benefits of this industry.
“I’ve also taken the opportunity in Parliament this month to express my disappointment in the scrapping of the Royalties for the Regions program,” Deb said.
