WESTERN SYDNEY NEEDS ITS INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING RESTORED

Today’s front page of The Daily Telegraph was a warning shot to the Albanese Labor Government: give Western Sydney the infrastructure funding we were promised and that we need.

The local Western Sydney community, from Picton to Richmond and Katoomba to Parramatta are fed up with a Federal Government that is not interested in investing funds into vital infrastructure for our region’s ever-growing population.

Despite the sharp rise in immigration, alongside transport and road project cuts, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has slashed almost $12 billion from NSW in his latest GST carve-up.

Infrastructure Minister Catherine King has cut funding for the M7-M12 link, upgrades to the Great Western Highway and Mulgoa Road, and the Western City Road Transport Network Development.

She has also delayed projects in Western Sydney across Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Camden, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Hawkesbury, Liverpool, Parramatta, Penrith, Ryde, The Hills, and Wollondilly council areas.

Do Albanese Labor Government ministers really think the NSW Government can cover the cost of slashed infrastructure spending with a significant drop in our State’s share of the GST?

Even the Treasurer’s NSW Labor counterpart Daniel Mookhey is up in arms about this lack of funding.

Today, Dr Chalmers said he is “a huge believer in Western Sydney.” He might want to let Minister King know this, because she has gutted funding for our local road and transport projects that will assist the new Western Sydney International Airport. Perhaps it’s no surprise this is happening as many in Labor were against the Airport and remain so.

My message to the Albanese Labor Government is to start caring about Western Sydney. We need our infrastructure funding fully restored in this upcoming Federal Budget. No one in Western Sydney wants a go-slow economy due to a lack of infrastructure to support our flourishing region.