Indi MP Cathy McGowan said the NSW side of the Border received the majority of the last major funding announcement for the Hume Freeway bypass, so the long-awaited announcement to repair the track was “beyond my wildest hopes”.

“I’ve never seen $100 million given to Indi in one go, not since I’ve been around,” she said. “We now want to make sure the tracks work for the next 50 years.”

Ms McGowan said Premier Daniel Andrews told her he would be ready to place an order once he saw the details.

She said she wanted a high-level expert committee set up to ensure the mistakes of constructing the rail line last time were not repeated.

Farrer MP Sussan Ley said Albury’s inclusion in the inland rail route would create thousands of jobs and connect the city with freight hubs across Eastern Australia.

“I see this as a rail budget and I'm pretty excited by that,” she said.

“Whether it is support for a continued decentralisation program, the guarantee for community legal centre funding, through to the small business tax write-off and plans for the Snowy Hydro, this budget is set to do good things in regional Australia to secure better days ahead.”

Ms Ley  said she would also continue fighting for Farrer’s share of mobile blackspot and NBN funding, continued into the next financial year.

Senator Bridget McKenzie said the rail funding was “unequivocally” a result of bringing Transport Minister Darren Chester to the region in March.

“I think regional Australians are the big winners in the federal budget,” she said.

The budget included $24 million in funding for 1200 rural and regional students to get scholarships to study science, technology, engineering or maths courses, which Senator McKenzie applauded, along with the new education funding system.

She said lowering the student loan repayment threshold to $42,000 would ease the burden on taxpayers while still ensuring support for students as part of one of the most generous system in the world.

Ms McGowan praised the $1.5 billion skills fund for vocational education and training, saying she was confident Wodonga, Wangaratta and Benalla institutions would benefit following talks with Vocational Education and Skills Assistant Minister Karen Andrews in the region last week.

“Another really big thing for us is rural financial counselling –  that’s been refunded,” she said. “Given all the changes particularly to the dairy industry, knowing that the rural financial counselling service is going to be funded is fantastic.”