A senior NSW Cabinet Minister has been caught out boasting that train station upgrades have been “bumped up” the Transport Access Program (TAP) list by political “skulduggery and manoeuvring”.
Minister for Fair Trading, Matt Kean, was caught on camera boasting that a tiny train station on the Hawkesbury River was prioritised for an upgrade - including the installation of lifts - because the Government fiddled with the priority list and ‘bumped up” the station by “150 spots”.
Even worse, he boasted that the Treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, moved the train station up the TAP priority list because he thought it was based in his own electorate.
In the meantime, Unanderra Station has missed out on funding for its lifts for the past seven years.
Wollongong MP, Paul Scully, is incensed by the revelations saying that it was very clear that what has long been suspected has now been confirmed by the Minister’s boast – the Government rorts the TAP list for political purposes.
The Hawkesbury River train station will be one of 11 allocated funding for an upgrade in today’s Budget.
The Unanderra Station, which had funding allocated in 2010, to install lifts by the former Labor Government, had this funding ripped away by the now Premier, Gladys Berejikilian, when she was Transport Minister. At the time the project was cancelled $6.7 million had already been spent on it.
Despite a vigorous community campaign of petitions, letter writing, public meetings, rallies and delegations to meet with Ministers, the funding has never been returned to Unanderra Station.
NSW Labor has committed $25 million to upgrading Unanderra Station in the first budget of a Foley Labor Government if elected in March 2019.
The Berejiklian Government has yet to pledge to match the NSW Labor commitment.
Comments attributable to Paul Scully MP:
“I have long suspected the Government is rorting the priority list for station upgrades.
“We now know, thanks to a boast by a senior Minister caught on camera, that the priority list is rorted for political purposes.
“In the Minister’s own damning admission – “skulduggery and manoeuvring” – is responsible for determining which train stations get funding for a new lift and which ones don’t.
“Unanderra station has missed out on funding time and time again over the last seven years under this Government because Ministers are rorting and fiddling with the priority list.
“The Minister’s admission is an embarrassing disgrace and once the people of Unanderra and surrounding suburbs know more about the rorting that has taken place, they will rightly be up in arms.
“Our request is simple – stop the rorting, return the money that had been previously allocated to Unanderra Station and finish the job that Labor started.”
