Member for New England Barnaby Joyce has pledged $27.2 million in partnership funding to local councils across New England under a revitalised Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, empowering communities to prioritise better roads and essential facilities, if the Coalition is re-elected to government.
Standing alongside Tamworth Regional Council Deputy Mayor Jeff Budd, Joyce said the revitalised program will put power back in the hands of local councils, creating jobs, boosting safety, and building stronger, more resilient communities.
“This is money that’s delivered to councils that give them the capacity to invest in infrastructure like you see here,” Joyce said, referring to the the skatepark in Tamworth’s Viaduct Park, “social infrastructure such as recreation grounds and roads”.
The proposal would see millions delivered to each council in the electorate.
Breakdown of funding pledged in Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program should Coalition be elected
| Council | Roads funding | Community Infrastructure | Total |
| Armidale Regional Council | $1,698,869 | $1,429,701 | $3,128,570 |
| Glen Innes Severn Council | $1,036,679 | $872,429 | $1,909,108 |
| Gwydir Shire Council | $1,404,800 | $1,182,224 | $2,587,024 |
| Inverell Shire Council | $1,666,017 | $1,402,055 | $3,068,072 |
| Liverpool Plains Shire Council | $1,029,957 | $866,772 | $1,896,729 |
| Muswellbrook Shire Council | $686,697 | $577,898 | $1,264,595 |
| Tamworth Regional Council | $3,151,922 | $2,652,533 | $5,804,455 |
| Tenterfield Shire Council | $1,240,949 | $1,044,335 | $2,285,284 |
| Upper Hunter Shire Council | $1,462,087 | $1,230,434 | $2,692,521 |
| Uralla Shire Council | $708,334 | $596,106 | $1,304,440 |
| Walcha Council | $703,213 | $591,796 | $1,295,009 |
Joyce said the point of the fund was to give freedom to the form of government closest to the people, local government, by providing a pot of money that they can use to fund measures that they would otherwise not be able to deliver under their restricted budgets.
Councillor Budd welcomed the announcement, saying that similar funding has been used before for projects around the region.
“Access to the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure funding coming back towards Council is an absolutely magnificent opportunity for our community to prosper and build infrastructure in our area,” Budd said.
“Tamworth Regional Council has used that funds previously for the Kootingal Multi-use Facility, the library, we’ve used it for this great park here, we’ve used it at Barraba for the showground.”
The beauty of the fund, Budd said, was that it was up to the local government to decide what to do with it.
“There are so many projects that our city and our region need, it’s going to be easy to find a place to use it,” he said.
“This is funding that’s so important to regional New South Wales, and we really look forward to having it back on the scope for us in terms of funding opportunities.”
Joyce said that the form of politics he likes to practice is to not pretend he knows what is happening to the depth of detail that local government does, and he works with local governments to deliver the best results for the New England and the Upper Hunter.
Joyce promotes record of delivering for the New England
Barnaby Joyce said that he was bipartisan in fighting for funds for New England, and has a record of delivering for the region regardless of who is in power.
“I just got $9 million the other day for the Aquatic Centre in Tamworth,” Joyce said.
“I’ve managed to deliver both in government and opposition.”
“I’m always happy to line up with any person and say, Let’s see who’s delivered the most from New England. You go first, and I will triple it.”
Having been “in the game for 20 years”, Joyce was quick to point out that none of the other candidates could boast that level of experience, and was critical of inexperienced candidates promising things that they cannot possibly deliver.
“There’s a bad habit, especially of Independents, to come out and say ‘I’m going to open up a aged care facility, and I’m going to open up a new store, and I’m putting in a new hospital, and I think we should put an Australian man on the moon, or have a space station out here, and that’s just before we start the Mars project,” Joyce joked.
“You scratch your head and go, mate, how are you gonna do all this? Are you the Treasurer?”
He was also critical of Labor’s lack of serious announcements for regional areas during the campaign, and news broken by New England Times on Monday that the NSW Government was taking public service roles away from regional areas.
“I’m disappointed that the Labor Party has not really risen to the task of taking regional areas seriously. They haven’t.”
“We haven’t seen one serious announcement for regional areas.”
“Away from the Labor Party corflutes that have come up around here, I cannot think of one thing that they’ve announced to do for our area.”
Despite the lack of commitments from Labor, Joyce expressed his willingness to work with the opposing party, as he’s done before.
“And I work with people and put forward a cogent and diligent argument as to why resources are needed.”
“After 20 years, you get to know the people on the other football side pretty well.”
Joyce recommits to decentralisation agenda
However, Joyce was quick to call out Labor’s plans to allegedly remove local public service jobs, including the APVMA, out of the region.
“Haven’t we heard the Labor Party saying, ‘Oh, if there’s a Coalition Government, public service jobs will go from regional areas.’”
“They’ve been saying that over and over again. Guess what? We’re not going to do it.”
“But they come out and actually announce it with a straight face that they’re going to do it,” he said, referring to the news that all of the regional staff of the NSW Office of Sport are being laid off.
“And this on the back of them trying to sneak the APVMA jobs away from Armidale, which we fought so hard all together to get put into Armidale.”
“They’re saying, ‘oh, we’ll have the APVMA jobs in Armidale, but they can actually do them in Canberra. Which, of course, means they’re moving back to Canberra.”
“We have the Net Zero Authority, which is about removing coal out of the equation and shutting down power stations.”
“It’s going to be devastating to places such as Muswellbrook, which is now in the New England electorate, and there’s not one bureaucrat from the Net Zero Authority in Muswellbrook. They’re all in Canberra, which is not going to have any effect whatsoever by those decisions.”
Joyce also claims there are plans to centralise administration jobs of the University of New England out of the region.
“I can’t work out the gall of them, how they get away with this is amazing.”
“Every time the Labor Party gets a chance for New England or the Upper Hunter, they kick us in the guts.”
Joyce said he believes there should be a significant decentralisation of government functions to the regions, because the wealth should go back to where it comes from, and argued for an audit of every government department to identify what can be decentralised.
“The reason Australia has the standard of living that it does is because of the regions,” Joyce said.
“That’s where the export dollars come from, that give us in terms of trade and the value to our dollar.”
“The taxpayers dollar should not just be centralised in Canberra. It’s got to come out to regional areas.”
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