IT’S been described as being “as boring as a beige cardigan” but this week’s federal Budget had at least a few splashes of colour in it for the Riverina.
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If the 2014 Budget was a fiscal horror show, this year’s Budget was more of a made-for-TV drama, a victory of style over substance.
The banner headline policy of tax cuts for those on $80,000 or more a year was clearly pitched at metro Australia and will cause barely a ripple in the bush.
Cuts to regional unis and an increased tax slug on backpackers will also do little to engender goodwill with voters in the Riverina.
Likewise the government’s failure to stump up for the Murray Darling Medical School, which many saw as a key driver to addressing the GP shortage in our towns and villages.
But in the plus column is the announcement of a $2 billion concessional loan facility to help state governments build dams over the next decade.
Water is wealth, especially in the food bowl of Australia, and our irrigators in the western Riverina are in the midst of a crisis of confidence.
The Murray Darling Basin Plan has ripped the heart out of too many of our communities, sparking a politician-made recession.
A new dam in the Riverina won’t change the course of the wretched basin plan but it will create a new water storage and a new sense of hope.
Under the previous Labor governments, dams were a dirty word as environmental scare-mongering infected many facets of decision-making.
The government has done the right thing by putting the water storage debate back on the table.
The Budget also delivered almost $600 million to forge ahead with plans for an inland railway from Brisbane to Melbourne, expected to run smack-bang through Wagga.
It’s a long-range project but the cash injection shows the government is serious about developing it.
The funding has also effectively forced the state government’s hand to chip in $10 million to complete the Bomen freight hub.
Inland rail is a critical piece of the supply chain puzzle and allows our farmers to get their produce to port in a more timely, and economical, manner.
We should never forget how inextricably linked our region’s fortunes are to agriculture.
When farmers smile, so should we.
