It’s been a long-held opinion in rural communities that both the state and federal governments believes NSW stands for Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong.
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And this week’s federal government decision to commit $32.5 million for a new medical school in Gosford if its candidate wins the seat supports the theory.
Proponents of the proposed Murray Darling Medical School must be scratching their heads over the decision, which can only be described as political pork-barrelling at its finest.
Charles Sturt University vice-chancellor Andrew Vann went as far as saying the government was putting political point-scoring ahead of addressing “our chronic doctor shortage”.
It should be common sense to allocate money where it is needed, but it is an obvious pattern that politicians throw money at marginal seats – both federal and state.
The federal seat of the Riverina and the state seat of Wagga are both strongly safe seats for the Coalition – the question we should ask ourselves is are we getting rewarded or punished for our collective loyalty?
The answer should not take aim at the current sitting members, but rather at the number of times we have been overlooked for our metropolitan and marginal seat compatriots.
I’m sure both Michael McCormack and Daryl Maguire would love to have more for our region, but their hands are essentially tied.
Take a look at the recent council amalgamations as another example – our freedom of democracy was well and truly eroded with the forced merger of a number of councils in our region, but in the marginal seat of Barnaby Joyce’s New England, councils were left alone.
One exception is the federal seat of Eden-Monaro – a well-known bellwether seat – where Tumbarumba and Tumut have become Snowy Valleys Council as well as a number of others.
Even though the merger decisions are being made by the state Liberal Baird government, people will still make their thoughts known at the federal polls on Saturday, July 2.
Politicians having love-ins with marginal seats is a fact of life in our current democratic system.
Why would an incumbent need to spend time and erode a tight budget for a seat they are virtually guaranteed?