THE fight to upgrade Gocup Road is set to continue after nothing was allocated in Tuesday night's federal budget to fix it and cuts made to infrastructure funding.
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Member for Riverina Michael McCormack made attempts to meet with new minister for regional development Anthony Albanese in Canberra late yesterday to gauge the status of the issue.
It comes after the government announced as part of the budget it will slash the Regional Infrastructure Fund by $2 billion over seven years a result of lower than anticipated revenue from the minerals resource rent tax.
At this stage it isn't known just what, if any, impact the cuts will have on Tumut Shire Council's (TSC) Regional Development Australia (RDA) Fund application, but Mr McCormack remained hopeful it would be funded.
"Gocup Road is in the mix," he said. "I sincerely hope that it gets the funding it requires.
"In terms of money for infrastructure, the bucket is practically empty, with a big hole in it."
Mr McCormack told The Daily Advertiser last month work on the road would likely remain in doubt until after the September federal election, following the sacking of minister for regional Australia Simon Crean.
An application is currently in place for TSC to receive a $5 million federal government grant, with successful projects to be announced in July.
Gocup Road is one of three projects from the southern inland RDA to reach final assessment stage.
The Daily Advertiser was unable to reach Tumut mayor Trina Thomson for comment late yesterday.