Mayors say state’s south is being short-changes by major parties pork-barrelling in marginal seats

The voters of Southern Tasmania are being short-changed by the big-spending promises of the major parties in the state’s marginal seats, local mayors say.

Sue Hickey Mayor of Glenorchy with Anna Reynolds Hobart Lord Mayor. The City of Hobart and Glenorchy City Councils are urging both major political parties to address the funding disparity affecting safe seats like Clark in the upcoming federal election. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

The voters of Southern Tasmania are being short-changed by the big-spending promises of the major parties, who are focused only on the state’s marginal seats, local mayors say.

Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds and Glenorchy Mayor Sue Hickey say the state’s capital and major population centre have missed out on campaign largesse in this year’s federal election campaign.

They say Lyons has received pledges totalling $409m; Bass, $157m and Braddon, $66m.

Meanwhile pledges totalling $12m have been made in Clark and just $9.8m in Franklin.

It means a voter in Lyons was being offered $3,500 worth of sweeteners, whereas those in Clark were being offered the equivalent of $116 — and vital projects totalling $200m in the state’s south were stalled for lack of funding.

“We’re here as the two mayors that represent the electorate of Clark to call out what we think is a really unfair and unjust situation with federal election funding,” Ms Reynolds said.

“Southern Tasmania is missing out and we just do not think that is fair or reasonable. It just does not pass the pub test.

“Hobart people pay their taxes, they pay their fair share of taxes, and they deserve to see some of that income come back into their communities and come back into important projects in where they live.

“The funding disparity is stark and it’s just not good enough.

“We had hoped that there would be a change of direction with the new federal government — they did promise that pork-barrelling had come to an end — but the data that we’ve got shows a very different picture.”

Ms Reynolds said both councils had made detailed pre-election funding bids to the major parties.

Clark, held by independent Andrew Wilkie, and Franklin, held by Labor’s Julie Collins, are among the safest seats in the country, while Bass and Lyons are among the most marginal.

Ms Hickey said allocating funding through a bidding war at election time was the wrong way to run a country.

She said there was no interest from either major party in funding a $84m swimming pool upgrade in her municipality.

“The major parties are treating the residents of Clark as second-class citizens,” she said.

“Why is it that we do not get our fair share of funding?

“It is taxpayers money, and it shouldn’t just be divvied up on political promises. It needs to be done fairly, so that we are all compensated for the infrastructure that we need in each of our areas.

“As you can see by this graph, clearly we’re not getting our fair share. Something is really wrong, and I think people need to stand up and call this out.”

The Labor campaign team responded with a lenghty list of committment the Albanese federal government has made to the state’s south in both federal budgets and the current election campaign totaling more than half a billion dollars.

It includes $240m in Macquarie Point precinct funding and $188m for wharf upgrades and the $80m Southern Outlet revamp.

Originally published as Mayors say state’s south is being short-changes by major parties pork-barrelling in marginal seats