Dear Bugle Reader,

The NSW budget was a mixed bag for our community. Clearly, walking the corridors of Parliament and continuing to apply the pressure to the government has seen rewards for our community, but there are also some very poor decisions that are cause for great concern.

The budget confirms that the Regional Seniors Travel Card will be cut. Keep in mind, the then opposition leader, now Premier, said prior to the election that he would ‘roll over’ cost of living measures like the Regional Seniors Travel Card.

Then in government, Labor said they would ‘pause’ the card. In fact, we had the Members for Shellharbour and South Coast lob into Hindmarsh Park to tell the world that I was misleading people when this clearly wasn’t the case.

 I will continue to fight the government on this issue. We have had more than 7,000 people sign our community petition opposing the cuts. If you oppose these cuts, feel free to sign the petition which can be found in my office in Terralong Street.

These cuts come on top of Labor’s already announced plans to scale back the Active Kids Rebate, the Creative Kids Rebate and the First Lap Voucher.

The NSW Government will also increase coal royalties by 30% in this budget. I have used Parliament to move to establish an inquiry into this tax hike because, like all taxes of this nature, this will simply be passed onto consumers.

70% of the State’s energy is still generated by coal and a tax increase of 30% will have a significant impact on household energy bills.

 My other concern about this budget is that there is lots of ‘planning’ money but not any ‘doing’ money. In fact, none of Labor’s major local election promises will see construction start in this term.

The NSW Budget reveals that planning on all of NSW Labor’s key election commitments will see planning continue across the forward estimates without a single dollar allocated to any real delivery.

However, I am pleased that Labor has kept funding I secured from the previous government to upgrade Shoalhaven Hospital and construct a new hospital at Shellharbour.

Both of these projects commenced before the election and the challenge will be finding the professional staff to meet demand.

I have only just received the budget papers and will continue to work through them and pursue every opportunity available for our community.