SCULLY DEMOLISHES WARD’S WOLLONGONG BUDGET FUNDING FUDGE

12 April 2018

Claims made by the Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra and South Coast, Gareth Ward MP, that the Wollongong electorate has benefited from increased funding over the last seven years of the Berejiklian Government have been demolished in Parliament yesterday evening.

Claims made by the Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra and South Coast, Gareth Ward MP, that the Wollongong electorate has benefitted from increased funding over the last seven years of the Berejiklian Government have been demolished in Parliament yesterday evening.

Member for Wollongong, Paul Scully, during a Private Members Statement, told the Parliament that almost half – 49 per cent – of the spending claimed by Mr Ward and the Treasurer, Dominic Perrottet MP, were in fact for projects conceived, planned, funded and started under the former Labor Government.

Mr Scully listed the projects that were funded by the former Labor Government and falsely claimed by the Berejikilan Government as evidence it had doubled investment in the Wollongong electorate:

$16.5M for the Illawarra Regional Cancer Care Centre – a great centre that started to be developed by the former Labor Government with the support of the Rudd Labor Government;

$122M for the Wollongong Elective Surgery Unit – another great addition to the Wollongong Hospital that first had funds allocated and work started on it by the former Labor Government;

$16.3M for the Western Grandstand at WIN Stadium – a project that the Member for Kiama has criticised up hill and down dale, but amazingly now tries to sneak into the total in his attempt to cover up the Government’s neglect of Wollongong;

$2.6M for the Inner Harbour development;

Almost $30M for work on the Outer Harbour – again, a project conceived, announced, funded and commenced under the previous Labor Government, and once opposed by the Liberal Party during the 2007 election;

$8.7M for the tug fleet base at Port Kembla, and;

$10.5M for the stabling yard at Wollongong - another project allocated funds and commenced under the former Labor Government.

Mr Scully told Parliament his analysis of the $424 million funding claim for the Wollongong electorate claimed by the Berejiklian Government included $206 million worth of funding for projects allocated by the former Labor Government.

Comments attributable to Paul Scully MP:

“One thing I’ve certainly learned since my election is to never take anything said by the Berejiklian Government - from the Premier, to the Treasurer, to the Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra – at face value.

“The Premier, Treasurer and Mr Ward have tried to mislead the people of Wollongong with this patently false claim that over the last seven years, the Government has doubled funding for the Wollongong electorate.

“They have only been able to make such a false claim because they’ve counted almost half of the funding invested by the former Labor Government in the Wollongong electorate – almost $1 in every $2 the Government claimed were on former Labor Government initiated projects.

“The Berejkilian Government’s claims have been busted as a typical budget funding fudge.

“Never take anything any member of the Berejikilian Government says at face value because once you do basic checks, the claims just don’t stack up.”