LABOR is still to make one Albury-specific funding commitment with less than a month until the NSW election.
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Shadow minister for regional and rural affairs Mick Veitch was the first state Labor politician to visit Albury during the campaign yesterday, but came empty-handed.
In comparison, current member for Albury Greg Aplin has had two government ministers visit the safely held Coalition electorate making funding announcements for the Riverina Highway upgrade and Urana Road Oval improvements.
Mr Veitch didn’t rule out funding promises in the last two weeks of the campaign but used his visit to focus on job losses in regional areas before discussing plans for a rail trail at Tumbarumba.
“Regional NSW has lost 23,000 jobs in the last four years,” Mr Veitch said.
“This is a problem and everywhere I go in regional NSW locals can point to a business that has closed or downsized.”
Mr Veitch said Labor had reacted by introducing a policy whereby local companies would receive a 20 per cent weighting when they bid for government contracts.
“As one of the largest purchaser of items, the state government should be supporting local businesses,” he said.
Mr Veitch said Labor was being responsible with its funding commitments compared to the government, which he claimed had under spent on infrastructure to the tune of $1.2 billion annually in the last four years.
“You’ve got ministers flying around the state making promises willy nilly about infrastructure spending,” he said.
“It is all on the back of a very risky and dodgy sale of our electrical assets.
“The local member voted for a 100 per cent sale of those assets.
“It is very similar to being given a credit card, spending up big on it before you’ve got approval from the bank.”
Mr Veitch said rail trails were a proven money spinner for local communities, but NSW lagged behind Victoria in their establishment.
“If done properly they’re a way of stimulating economies, however not every rail corridor is suitable to a rail trail,” he said.
Labor candidate Ross Jackson defended Labor’s commitment to Albury to date claiming the replacement of demountable with permanent, air-conditioned classrooms was a superior policy to the Coalition’s $148 million commitment to upgrading 60 secondary schools.
Mr Jackson, a railways consultant, also offered cautious support for rail trails.
“Let’s do our homework first,” he said.
“Realistically the infrastructure has to be removed because most of it has been sitting there for 30 years with no trains.”
