Wagga politicians have repeated their calls for transparency amid the continued stoush over the sale of Wagga ambulance station, with one councillor accusing the state government of "pork barrelling".
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Responding to questions from the Daily Advertiser, a NSW government spokesperson said the Ambulance station was "sold to Wagga Wagga City Council at a substantial discount to its commercial value", a sale which the council was previously happy about.
"Some assets sold in the past had significant heritage or maintenance issues, or were built in the 1800s, making a commercial sale harder to achieve," they added.
"The former Wagga Wagga Ambulance was built more recently and was in good condition at the time of sale."
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The spokesperson said that Wagga has received "significant amounts of funding in recent years", pointing to the $431 million for a new hospital, $30 million for a new hospital carpark and $158 million towards a 4,500 hectare special activation precinct.
As well as the new cycling complex at Pomingalarna Reserve and "funding towards council-owned community assets including sporting and playground upgrades".
Wagga city Councillor Dan Hayes said that this is the third answer from the government in as many weeks to have avoided the real question at hand, why other cities received similar buildings for $1.
He bristles at the idea that Wagga should sit back and be thankful for the funding they have previously received.
"Let's be clear, a number of those promises they've talked about, they're either backflipped on, they didn't mention the ones they've absolutely removed. And the hospital carpark is half the parking promised," he said.
"It's a bit disingenuous. And quite distracting for them to talk about the other things and not answer the key issue.
Cr Hayes said the whole saga "reeks of pork barrelling".
"They look after National seats. And I think there absolutely is a concern by this government that as soon as Wagga gets mentioned, they've got to answer 10-20 questions about Daryl Maguire and Gladys. So, their goal is to avoid us as much as possible.," he said.
"At the end of the day, all that is irrelevant to why we were told the ambulance station couldn't be provided for a dollar and then they're doing it in all these other seats with National party members," he said.
Wagga MP Joe McGirr said he is "dismayed" at the "double standards" applied in this case, and has brought the matter to the Premier directly.
"Given there have been a number of other instances of old government buildings being gifted to communities across NSW, Wagga Wagga seems to have been singled out unfairly," he said.
"Transparency in grants is fundamental to trust in government. The Premier has given a strong commitment to this. With the response it is still not clear how this is fair or transparent in this case.
"Wagga does seem to be getting different unfair treatment."
Mayor Dallas Tout said a response from an unnamed spokesperson is not good enough..
"I'm yet to receive a formal response from someone I can identify with an explanation as to why the $1 dollar price wasn't able to happen," he said.
He said that while the comments from the spokesperson regarding funding to Wagga aren't untrue, every issue should be judged separately on its own merits.
"My position is that I'll look forward to a formal response so we can get it back for the dollar, in line with other property transfers that were done at the time," he said.
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