Robyn Lambley MLA: Gunner budget not delivering for Alice Springs

The just-released Territory budget is a ‘rehash of old announcements for Alice Springs with no time frames’, says Araluen MLA Robyn Lambley.

• REVEALED: What’s in the Territory’s 2021-22 budget for you

THE 2021-22 Budget is a “rehash of old announcements for Alice Springs with no time frames”, says Araluen MLA Robyn Lambley.

Ms Lambley said the livery of residential land at Kilgariff Subdivision and other industrial land, the new care centre for Alice Springs Hospital and attached carpark, and the redevelopment of the town’s detention centre – all major components of the 2021-22 NT Budget – had already been announced in previous years by Chief Minister Michael Gunner.

“ … for Alice Springs it is more of the same old announcements and no solid plan for

delivery,’ the independent MLA said.

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She said the Gunner government had never increased its funding allocation for the National Aboriginal Art Gallery as claimed, but instead “split the project into the National

Aboriginal Art Gallery and National Aboriginal Cultural Centre”.

Ms Lambley also said the budget failed to include important funding to boost tourism in the Red Centre.

Independent MLA Robyn Lambley. Picture: Che Chorley

“The Budget does not include funding for the sealing of the Merrenie Loop road,

despite this being identified as a top priority for Tourism Central Australia and the

Central Australia Economic Reconstruction Committee,” she said.

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