Rural and regional Australia is once gain a winner as Prime Minister KEVIN Rudd moves boldly to bolster economic activity and insulate Australia against the worst effects of the Global credit crisis.
On the back of announcing last weeks $10.4 biilion cash stimulus of which 2.9 million rural and regional Australians will pocket $4 billion the PM last night announce $600 million will be fast tracked into spending on small local infastucture projects.
The Commonwealth will pump $600 million into local councils to deliver small projects that are set to go in a bid to boost rural & regional economies and shield local communities from job losses that may happen as the impacts of the Global credit crisis hit.
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“Australian Local Government Association president Paul Bell [pictured] said local governments could get started on the backlog of public works projects almost immediately.
“We have got the plans, we have got the designs, we know the priorities,” Mr Bell said.
“In many cases, this is spending we have had to continually defer, so this money could hit the ground very, very quickly.
Body: “It would boost local economies and replace and maintain the kind of infrastructure that really provides the glue for these communities.”
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The new funding program will be targeted at public infrastructure, such as sports grounds, libraries, transport systems, community halls, bridges and local roads. None of the money be available to private business as it was under the Howard governments much criticized Regional partneship scheme.
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In 2006, the Australian Local Government Association commissioned a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers that found there was a $14.5 billion backlog in necessary spending on local government infrastructure.
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The Howard government for the large part left rural and regional Australia to ‘die on the vine’.
So for moving boldly to begin to address the neglect of infrastructure in local communities the PM wins his second Agmates “Onya” in last 7 days.
A big Thumbs up from the Agmates community.
“Onya” Kevin.
I must say the PM’s bold actions over the last two weeks have me feeling better about my decision to vote Labor at the last election.
Thats not to say I’m smart – I mean I’m ashamed to admit it but I did vote for Hansen in the Senate. All that achieved was helping her get a $200,000 tax payer funded cheque.
As I was to discover after the election, she’d been too distracted by a relationship to do any serious campaigning – but happily took the cheque because mugs like me were duped into believing she was busting to get into the Senate and work for rural & regional Australians.
As it worked out we have ended up with two Independent Senators, Fielding and Xenophon who are doing a tremendous job looking after the interests of rural & regional Australians.
As far as Hansen is concerned – Never again.
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Have Your say!
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