MID-MURRAY COMMUNITY PROJECTS COMPLETED

Member for Barker, Tony Pasin MP, has joined Mid-Murray Council in celebrating the completion of works at Len White Reserve, Swan Reach and Blanchetown Old Oval Playground.

The $536,000 Len White Reserve Project upgrade included Swan Reach Riverfront Masterplan, footpath and lighting construction, Riverbank remediation design and construction and playground design and construction. The former Coalition Government contributed $224,000 to the project through round 4 of the highly successful Building Better Regions Fund.

The Building Better Regions Fund provided $1.38 billion in total to nearly 1,300 local projects to ensure our regions remain great places to live and visit, while helping support important regional industries create jobs.

The Len White Reserve toilet upgrade has also been completed, funded with $110,000 through the former Coalition Government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Grant Phase 2 funding.

Local Road and Community Infrastructure Program delivered $3.25 billion to support Australian councils to deliver priority local road and community infrastructure projects in their region, creating jobs and long-lasting benefits for communities.

The Albanese Labor Government has also scrapped the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program which delivered significant benefits to local communities, particularly for improved community infrastructure, which, without this Federal Government funding, would fall into disrepair. 

The Blanchetown playground project has also been completed thanks to $189,000 funding from the former Coalition Government’s Murray–Darling Basin Economic Development Program.

This project was a great collaboration between Mid Murray Council and the Blanchetown community, which saw the requests from the Blanchetown Primary School students included in the design process.

“I’m proud of the former Coalition Government legacy in the Mid-Murray. Thanks to these highly successful Federal Government funding programs, I was able to deliver the funding needed to see these projects come to fruition,” Mr Pasin said. 

“Building Better Regions, the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure and Murray-Darling Basin Economic Development Programs were national funding initiatives delivering at a local level here in the Mid-Murray. It’s disappointing that the Albanese Labor Government has scrapped these funding programs and failed to replace them with anything of equivalent merit for regional communities,” Mr Pasin said.

“The programs delivered vital funding to local Government that helped drive and sustain local employment, community infrastructure and the local economy. Regional Councils that are large in area but relatively small in rate base such as the Mid Murray Council (which covers an expansive 6273 square kilometres with a limited ratepayer base of around 10,000) need financial support from the Federal Government,” Mr Pasin said.

“Labor simply don’t understand the regions.”