The $66.1 million for the Newcastle Airport runway extension announced on May 7 by Prime Minister Scott Morrison has proved to be the major capital works program applying specifically to the Hunter Region.
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The Budget papers show the money is coming from the Department of Defence, with $10 million allocated in the financial year starting on June 30, with the other $56.1 million to come in the 2022-23 financial year.
In his Regional Ministerial Budget Statement, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said a $274-million upgrade of Williamtown begun in 2016 was almost finished, with $19.8 million to be spent this financial year and another $5.1 million in 2021-22.
Mr McCormack's statement also reveals that $42.2 million is being spent updating Singleton army base, with $23.7 million estimated spending this year and $9.8 million in 2021-22.
The Hunter and its residents will receive a share of the myriad government programs, payments and grants that are not "location specific", but this year's budget continues a noticeable run of annual statements in which major projects on the Hunter wish-list - the Hexham to Fassifern freight rail bypass being a good example - have gone unfunded.
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Although the Budget papers say the government will spend "up to $215.4 million" over six years to support investment in new dispatchable power generation, there is no sign of a decision, or funding, for the proposed Snowy Hydro gas turbine power station at Kurri Kurri.
This is despite the "improving energy reliability and affordability" package including $30 million in 2021-22 for a 'big battery" at Katherine in the Northern Territory and $30 million during 2021-23 for "early works" on a power station at Port Kembla proposed by a group known as Australian Industrial Power.
With the Australian Energy Regulator in the midst of an overhaul of the electricity market, the organisation - under the auspices of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission - will receive $11.9 million extra a year for two years to meet "new statutory obligations". Also in the renewables sector, the regulator will receive $3.2 million over two years to enable it to "provide temporary waivers from regulatory requirements" to energy providers to "enable trials of new business models".
As the owners of the PEP-11 permit wait to see whether Resources Minister Keith Pitt approves their licence extension, the budget papers show $15.6 million in competitive grants for gas field trials in the North Bowen and Galilee basins in Queensland.
The government is also pledging $263.7 million over 10 years to fund carbon, capture, use and storage projects, which Mr McCormack's paper says will mainly be located in regional or "offshore" (ie undersea) regions.
A business case will also be developed for a pipeline between Lostock Dam and Glennies Creek Dam, with funding of $11.1 million over three years as part of a broader national water grid plan under the JobMaker banner.
In its JobMaker infrastructure program, the government has announced $3.3 billion for 11 priority road projects in NSW over 10 years, although the timing of the spending is dependent on co-funding from the NSW government.
No Hunter projects are among the 11, with the closest being $52.8 million for an upgrde of the Manns Road and Narara Creek Road intersection on the Central Coast, and $48 million for the intersection of Harrington Road and Pacific Highway at Coopernook, near Taree.
The "Tenterfield to Newcastle corridor" has, however, been identified as a 'road of strategic importance" with "important linking roads" upgraded to support freight movement.
As a consequence of the PFAS contamination uncovered at Williamtown and other RAAF bases, the budget contains $130.5 million over three years to investigate and manage PFAS contamination at Australia's civil airports.
Relevant to the Hunter's unfortunate history as one of the clerical child sexual abuse "hotspots" is a commitment to "further support" for the National Redress Scheme to compensate survivors in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The costs are listed as "not for publication" because of "ongoing negotiations with the states and territories". Mr McCormack's regional statement says these unspecified funds build on $104.6 million in redress funding to 2023-24.
In response to the royal commission, the budget also includes $21.8 million in 2021-22 and more than $120 million over four years in funding to various government agencies under a national strategy to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse.
The $50 a fortnight increase in working-age welfare payments that began on April 1 has been estimated to cost $675 million to June 30, $2.5 billion in 2021-22 and $2.1 billion a year - on top of existing welfare costs - for the three years to 2024-25.
Budget paper 3 - which sets out Canberra's financial relations with state, territory and local governments - shows that payments to non-government schools now clearly outstrip payments to state schools, with $14.7 billion of $24.8 billion in Quality Schools funding going to the non-government sector. From 2021 to 2025 private schools are set to receive $63 billion of the $104 billion allocated.
BP3 also shows that federal grants to local government will be about half their usual amount in the 2021-22 financial year, totalling $1.3 billion (including $409 million for NSW councils) because $1.3 billion had been brought forward and paid in the present financial year to help councils "manage the cumulative impacts of drought, bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic".
Mr McCormack's paper describes the M1 Pacific Motorway extension to Raymond Terrace as a priority project, encompassing 15 kilometres of between Raymond Terrace and Black Hill, with 2.6 kilometres of bridge over the New England Highway and the Hunter River, including the widening of the Pacific Highway at Hexham to three lanes in each direction.
Regional Development Australia Hunter has also been assured of another three years of funding with RDA Hunter and the other 50 or so RDAs around the nation sharing $77.2 million over three years to 2024.
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