Money for transport nearly tripled but farmers and police were key sectors to miss out on funding.
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That’s the assessment of Tuesday’s state budget by the Member for Orange Phil Donato.
Mr Donato said he was disappointed farmers weren’t given drought freight subsidies in the budget after the pool of money for drought-assistance loans was increased.
“Nothing was mentioned in the treasurer’s speech about the drought. He didn’t even mention the word drought,” he said.
Mr Donato said money for an extra 100 police across NSW would “not make a huge dent” in police numbers.
“It wouldn’t even cover the deficit for those that leave every year,” he said.
Mr Donato said at least the budget didn’t have any funding cuts for the region.
It was the government’s last budget before the next state election is due in March.
“Overall it was a typical pre-election budget from a government with a surplus of $4 billion from the sale of assets,” he said.
The big local winner was funding for roads and rail.
“It’s been almost a triple increase in the transport sector spending on road and rail improvements,” he said.
“There is $35.1 million compared to the previous year of $13.1 million.”
Projects include the Southern Feeder Road, work at Guanna Hill, improving the Newell Highway and upgrades to rail lines.
Mr Donato said the family and community-friendly budget at least didn’t have any funding cuts for the region.
“It’s not a bad budget, we could have had more, we could have had less,” he said.
“It shows you don’t need to have a member of the government representing you to attract funding to your electorate.”