State Budget 2023: Geraldton Mayor and Opposition outline their priorities for the Mid West

With the State Budget less than a week away, local leaders are drawing up their wish-lists of projects and programs they are hoping will receive investments. On Thursday, the McGowan Government will hand down its 2023-24 budget, outlining its plans for the development for WA. Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said he would be hoping to know where progress was at on a number of major projects. These include the Oakajee Strategic Industrial Area, the Geraldton Port Maximalisation project and the Geraldton Health Campus redevelopment, which the Government is currently considering expressions of interest for after going to tender between November 2022 and January 2023, following prior delays. “We’ll continue to keep an eye on the Geraldton Hospital funding, not only the amount as costs continue to increase, but also looking at the timing, the profiling of the expenditure to see where it’s at,” he said. Mr Van Styn also said he would like to see smaller local government grants given more funding after cuts over the last six years, and an increase in road funding, although he said he was not expecting this would happen. Opposition Leader and Moore MLA Shane Love said he wanted to see progress on worker accommodation in Kalbarri to aid post-cyclone Seroja relief efforts, as well as steps taken on restructuring the Jurien Bay marina, although he said he was not optimistic for the Mid West. Mr Love also said he would be hoping to see commitments made to improve power reliability in the Mid West “It will be interesting to see if there’s anything that can be done in that regard, to shore up the power supplies and improve power to people within the Mid West area,” he said. Shadow regional health and emergency services minister Martin Aldridge said he wanted to see $30 million invested over four years into a rescue helicopter based in the Mid West, $11 million for an oncology unit at Geraldton Health Campus and $73 million invested into a Regional Road Safety Package. Mr Aldridge also said he would be keeping a firm eye on progress for Geraldton’s hospital redevelopment and investment into the Oakajee project. “These are both important projects and we need to see commitment here,” he said. Before the State Budget is released, the Federal Budget will be handed down on Tuesday. On a federal level, Mr Van Styn said he was not optimistic about any major investments for the Mid West. “We’re hearing the Federal Budget’s cutting infrastructure projects across the country,” he said. “The fact that they’re actually looking to cut the existing list doesn’t bode well for any significant investment out here in the Mid West from the Federal Budget.”