State Member Slams Disproportionate Funding

While the budget looks positive from a state level, the breakdown of investment within the Whitsunday and Mackay region is mainly centred around schools, hospitals, and preannounced projects.

This is the view of Member for Whitsunday Amanda Camm MP who says she is disappointed to see a disproportionate amount of funding given to the region.

Mackay and Whitsundays only received $623.4 million in $20.321 billion Capital Program compared to Townsville that received $1.180 billion and Central Queensland that received $2.003 billion.

The sparsely populated Outback Queensland was the only other region to receive similar, at

$675.8 million.

“Given the state government mining royalties that have increased by $8 billion, I am disappointed to see no funding returned to the region that creates that wealth,” she said.

“We have the smallest budget contribution, by region and this is the last budget before next year’s election budget, and I would have liked to have seen better.”

“It’s great to see they have announced free kindy but how are they going to deliver on that when we are struggling to find a skilled workforce and enough placements for kids?”

Ms Camm is also frustrated that infrastructure projects such as Hamilton Plains flood protec- tion strategies have been completely missed in the budget.

“There is nothing for Hamilton Plains and no major road projects in our region at all,” she said.

“We are just not seen as a region that this government is willing to invest in.”

“There is a blatant disregard for the population growth we are seeing in regional Queensland, but I will continue to advocate for our fair share.”