Regional Australia robbed to insulate cities from Rudd recession

Families across regional New South Wales have been dudded by a Labor Budget that sucks money out of the regions towards Australia’s capital cities, according to Nationals Senator Fiona Nash. “There is just $9.2 million extra for healthcare infrastructure in rural Australia, but Labor is spending four hundred times more than that on pink batts and hot water systems,” Senator Nash said. “It shows the PM’s promise to fix our hospitals by mid 2009 and claims that the health buck stopped with him were election pledges Labor never intended to honour.” “All the big road and passenger rail infrastructure projects are in the capital cities.” Senator Nash said that everyone in Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan’s Brisbane electorates would get super fast broadband, but countless smaller towns in regional New South Wales would miss out. “The only government department to suffer cuts is the Department of Agriculture which loses $12 million as does the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.” “There is no money left in government coffers to reverse this raid on regional Australia, with record Budget deficits of $58 billion forecast for the next two years and Government debt to skyrocket to $188 billion plus by 2012,” Senator Nash concluded. Contact: Murray Lees, media adviser, 0417 406 338

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