Federal Member for Nicholls Sam Birrell has slammed Labor’s first budget as one which leaves regional Australians out.
Few measures to ease cost-of-living pressures were included in the Federal budget, which was released last week.
“It’s a bad day for regional Australia,” Mr Birrell said last Wednesday.
“It’s a poor budget for dealing with the impact of cost-of-living crisis.”
He said the cost of groceries and power was on the rise, while interest rates were also skyrocketing, and there was “no relief for any of that”.
Mr Birrell said despite $4.7 billion in new childcare spending being announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, no additional childcare centres would be created across Nicholls.
"We’ve got significant childcare deserts out here and this does nothing to alleviate that,“ Mr Birrell said.
“Families across Nicholls have been left behind.
“Labor has put the needs of our families last, refusing to increase availability of desperately needed childcare centres in our regional communities.”
Regional funding programs which had been a staple of Coalition governments over the past decade, including the Building Better Regions Fund, Energy Security and Regional Development Plan, Regional Accelerator Program and Community Development Grants Program, have all been scrapped, which Mr Birrell said would create “enormous damage”.
"They’re significant programs,“ he said.
Mr Birrell said money tipped in for the suburban rail link in Melbourne was part of an “election stunt” for the Victorian poll in November, whereas projects such as the Rural Clinical Health School to train nurses at GV Health wouldn’t be continued.
“I’m normally an optimistic person, but I couldn’t find much in this budget,” Mr Birrell said.