Member for Wollongong Paul Scully told Parliament last night that the Illawarra was tired of playing a “game of funding hokey-pokey” with the Berejiklian Government over whether the region is classified as ‘regional’ and that a consistent definition must be adopted.

Mr Scully said that the Illawarra’s Labor MPs, representing the Wollongong and Shellharbour local government areas, had written to the Premier asking for bipartisan talks working towards a consistently applied definition across government that would provide these areas with a fair chance of obtaining funding under NSW Government programs.

He told Parliament that the “game of funding hokey-pokey” – where “sometimes we are in and sometimes we are out” – was “untenable and must be resolved”.

Mr Scully said it was impossible for Wollongong to compete against Western Sydney and Sydney when classified as a ‘metropolitan’ area.

He told Parliament that the Wollongong local government area had yet to see any specific funding for any project from the $20 billion sale of electricity ‘poles and wires’.

NSW Labor has outlined a comprehensive $225 million plan to build on the region's strengths and to help meet the challenges of the future, including creating jobs.  

Mr Scully made his remarks during a Private Members Statement in the Legislative Assembly last night.

Comments attributable to Paul Scully MP:

“We are all getting sick and tired of playing this this game of funding hokey-pokey with the Berejiklian Government over the classification of the local government areas of Wollongong and Shellharbour for funding programs.

“It is simply unfair for Wollongong to be pitted against the largest economy in Sydney and third largest economy in the country in Western Sydney because we cannot compete against these giants.

“While Labor has outlined a comprehensive $225 million plan to build on the region’s strengths, the Berejikilan Government just continues to ignore us and exclude us from funding programs.

“We have made a genuine good-faith offer to sit down with the Premier and Deputy Premier to finally agree on a clear definition of what constitutes the Illawarra region, which reflects its relative size and does not split a clearly identifiable geographical, social, environmental and economic region on arbitrary and highly variable grounds.