Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor has come out swinging over local government funding cuts in the federal budget.
Mr Taylor, who is also the opposition treasury spokesman, says the cuts by the Albanese Government will mean ratepayers will pay more for local services and councils will build less community infrastructure.
During a cost-of-living crisis, rate increases are something that people simply cannot afford, he said.
“The local roads and community infrastructure program was an incredibly successful initiative by the former Coalition Government, and it will be sorely missed in the future,” Mr Taylor said.
“The program allowed local councils to plan community infrastructure in advance, knowing how much funding they would receive outside a tedious grant application process.
“Across my electorate, councils have been delivering much needed local infrastructure projects with this funding.
“The local roads and community infrastructure program funded projects like stage one of the Crookwell Multipurpose Aquatic Activity Centre, a new amenities building in Goulburn, upgrades to Camden’s Macarthur Park and provided new netball facilities at Tahmoor District sporting complex.
Sadly, projects like these will be a thing of the past under Labor.
“Councils and their ratepayers deserve better than a Federal Government that makes their lives harder,’’ Mr Taylor said.
The South West Voice asked Mr Taylor’s office if the Hume MP had received any feedback from local councils or indeed if he had been talking to any of them over the budget cuts.
“Not specifically in response to this cut, but he will be meeting with all of them in the coming weeks to discuss,’’ his office said in response.
Mr Taylor is pictured above (left) celebrating the opening of Tahmoor’s state of the art netball facilities in 2021, made possible by Federal Government local roads and community infrastructure funding.
