Llew O’Brien blasts federal axing of $10m Gympie council work

Gympie residents will pay the price of the decision to axe a regional funding stream, according to Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien, amid claims it was used for ‘pork barrelling’.

Wide Bay MP Llew O'Brien has lashed a federal government decision to axe a regional infrastructure stream which Gympie council was seeking more than $10m from.

More than $10m in possible funding for major Gympie projects has been scrapped as part of a controversial federal government decision to axe a regional infrastructure program.

Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien said in a statement on Wednesday that funding for two Gympie Regional Council projects would be lost because of the change.

These were $7.5m for the new waste transfer station at Monkland, and $2.95m to continue the Southside Sewerage rollout.

The Building Better Regions fund, which was established by the former coalition government, was terminated by the Labor government.

It has accused its coalition predecessor of using the fund to pork-barrel its own seats.

Mr O’Brien said the slashing of the program showed “contempt” for councils and community groups.

Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien said the axing of the Building Better Region funds has impacted Gympie council’s plans to continue rolling out the Southside Sewerage scheme.

“People put a lot of time and energy into preparing quality applications for a range of proposals throughout Wide Bay and to have them dismissed out of hand shows utter contempt by the Labor government,” Mr O’Brien said.

“These groups applied for the funds in good faith and the government should have let the assessments proceed.

“Instead, the Government has wasted eight months of departmental assessment before junking the applications, and the organisations will now have to wait for a new program to be developed, new guidelines to be released, and a new funding round to be opened, before they can do all their work again and lodge new applications to the new program if they wish to seek funding.”

An application for $7.5m to build a waste transfer station at Monkland was another casualty of the federal government’s axing of the Building Better Regions fund. Photo Tanya Easterby / The Gympie Times

Mr O’Brien criticised delays on funding projects which were ultimately given the green light, including $1.8m for a new landmark at Normanby Park.

“These organisations have been waiting since the May 2022 election to find out about the fate of their grants, and there is finally now a process by which they can apply for the funds that were already allocated to them in the March 2022 Liberal and Nationals Government’s Budget,” Mr O’Brien said.

“The government has wasted five months unnecessarily delaying these projects, and in that time, costs have skyrocketed but the grant allocations remain the same.

“The government must expedite the funding contracts to enable these projects to proceed as soon as possible so they can deliver benefits to the community as soon as possible.”

Federal transport Minister Catherine King and Gympie Regional Council have been contacted for comment.