MEMBER for Orange Phil Donato was disappointed the city of Orange has been snubbed in the NSW budget while its National Party-held neighbours have faired well in treasure Matt Kean's spending spree.
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Bathurst has come out with the big ticket item of $200 million for the redevelopment of the Bathurst hospital while Dubbo will continue to benefit from the delivery of a $306.3m health services redevelopment as well as $35m for the construction of the NSW Police Dubbo Regional Education and Training Centre and $5.2m for the expansion of Dubbo court.
Funding of $13.5m for Bletchington Public School was the highlight for Orange while $2.74m has been set aside for an Aboriginal housing package and $11.6m for social housing upgrades.
Mr Donato agreed Orange, the city, had been overlooked.
"Pretty much," he said.
When asked if he felt that was because the seat was held by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, he said: "that's a fair assessment."
"I'm disappointed we didn't get funding for the PET CT scanner or even a school hall at Trundle," he said adding a new fire station for Orange that could house equipment to fight fires in multi-storey buildings and the restoration of full maternity services in the Lachlan Area Health Service had been on his wish list, too.
"But obviously there's going to be election in March and there'll be a lot of announcements in the lead-up to that," he said.
While Orange itself was largely overlooked, outlying areas of the electorate which include Parkes, Forbes and Canowindra were mentioned in early dispatches.
The budget announced continued delivery of Canowindra's HealthOne establishment ($6m) and completion of the $219m Parkes Activation project.
Mr Donato said the seat's transport funding had increased from $62m to $93m
"The bulk of that money is the Newell Highway upgrade to the Parkes bypass so that's 88-and-a-half million there," he said.
Other highlights from the budget for the region include:
- $9.4 million in 2022-23 for Millthorpe Public School to continue delivery of a new learning hub, library and major refurbishments
- $8.7 million for the construction of a new Blayney Police Station
- $6.0 million upgrade to biomedical equipment across the Western NSW Local Health District
Continued delivery of:
- $110.2 million Cowra Hospital redevelopment (including additional funding of $40 million) .
- $4.0 million Bathurst Hospital MRI
- $1.1 million to refurbish the King George Oval and Blayney Netball Centre precinct.
Transport:
- $142.9 million to continue planning upgrades to the Great Western Highway between Katoomba and Lithgow (state and federally funded), including commencing construction on the Medlow Bath and Cox's River Road sections of the highway
- $68.4 million for the planning and construction of overtaking lanes along the full length the Newell Highway (state and federally funded), including in the Central West
- $32.8 million to commence construction of the new Dubbo Bridge on the Newell Highway over the Macquarie River, Dubbo (state and federally funded) . $20.3 million to complete upgrades to the Great Western Highway between Kelso and Raglan . $4.7 million for planning the Newell Highway Flood Mitigation works between West Wyalong and Forbes
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