Federal Budget 2022: New jetty, hospital upgrades and tax cuts on Geraldton’s budget wishlist

All eyes will be on Canberra on Tuesday as cash-strapped Geraldton families keep their fingers crossed for tax offsets and fuel excise cuts to feature in the 2022 Federal Budget. Business, healthcare, community infrastructure and housing are all areas which Mid West locals say have been hit hard by the COVID pandemic and a lack of investment over the years. But it remains to be seen which local projects will get the green light when Treasurer Josh Frydenberg delivers his Budget. Speaking to the West Australian last week, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said Federal Government spending over the next 12 months would have a “strong focus on apprenticeships and skilling Australians” to sustain “wealth-generating sectors” into the future. Durack MHR Melissa Price remained tight-lipped on what, if any, funding her electorate would receive, but said “strong economic management” would be a key focus of Tuesday’s budget. “I know the Prime Minister and Treasurer are also concerned about the rising cost of living for all and I have certainly kept my regional electorate of Durack in that conversation with them,” she said. “As a Cabinet Minister I ensure the needs of regional Australia are kept front of mind for my colleagues and I hope that will be reflected in next week’s Budget.” With this Budget being delivered in the lead-up to an election campaign, Durack’s status as a safe Liberal seat could be a factor in election sweeteners going elsewhere. Ms Price in November met with a community group campaigning for a new jetty to be built along the Beresford foreshore, with early estimates putting the cost of construction between $10m and $15m. Ms Price backed the project and said she would be keen for Federal funding to be allocated to the jetty, but no further commitments have been made. City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn in February put forward a motion for the council to spend $200,000 on preliminary investigations to assess the viability of the project. The motion was ultimately lost, with the council instead opting to consider if and how much funding it would contribute to the project during the 2022-23 local government budget deliberations. Mr Van Styn said Federal funding would prove vital to getting the jetty proposal off the ground. He said another project in need of a cash boost was the development of the Oakajee Narngulu Infrastructure Corridor. “Historically back in the day there was more than $330 million set aside for the development of Oakajee, that is no longer in the budget, but we know the Federal Government is capable of funding those large-scale programs,” he said. The Rudd Government in 2009 allocated $339 million to the development of common use water, power and road infrastructure at the Oakajee port north of Geraldton. But this funding was lost after Japanese proponent Mitsubishi announced it would be suspending works in 2013. Little has been done to further the project, with the WA Government contributing $7.5 million to the construction of road infrastructure into Oakajee in the 2021-22 State Budget. Mr Van Styn said much of Geraldton’s Federal investment came in the form of grant initiatives and hoped these regional funding programs would continue as part of the Budget. “As a local government we would like to see a continuation of the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program, because that has been funding all the work on footpaths we have been doing in town,” he said. “Typically the City of Greater Geraldton has been successful in applying for things like the Building Better Regions Fund, so we would like to see that program continue.” To help address the rising cost of living, Mr Van Styn hoped the Federal Government would honour tax cuts promised for middle income earners in its upcoming Budget. Mid West Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Joanne Fabling said at the top of her Federal Budget wishlist was an overhaul of power infrastructure in the Mid West. “The mother of all (of Geraldton’s funding needs) is electricity infrastructure, specifically a 330kv line from Three Springs to Geraldton,” she said. “That has a projected cost of around $450 million. If they had done it 12 years ago it would have been around $280 million. “We have got to have it for growth. Our economic future is really dependent on what these governments do next.” To support growing investment in Geraldton and the Mid West, Ms Fabling said Federal support was needed to improve housing availability. “We have got Project Haber —Strike Energy’s new urea fertiliser production facility — ramping up, and there will be a requirement of 1500 beds just during construction phase alone,” she said. “A lot of this requires the State Government and Federal Government to work together. The State Government needs extra funding from the Federal Government to address these issues.” Regional healthcare is another area Ms Fabling says Mid West businesses and residents are eager to see investment in, with upgrades to Geraldton Health Campus’ intensive care facilities on many local health professionals’ wishlists. “We want to see priority given to ICU beds. In the State election, we were to receive some and then that election promise was not upheld and we received high care dependency unit beds instead. “Our hospital is at the stage where those ICU beds are an urgent requirement. With four ICU beds, we could then employ the people or the professions required to run them.” She said the Mid West’s road infrastructure and freight networks also needed Federal Government attention, with development of the Northampton bypass being a top funding priority. GERALDTON’S FEDERAL BUDGET WISHLIST