Today’s Courier Mail reports that Labor will invest $200 million in regional cities following an interview it conducted with the Minister for Population, Tony Burke.1
But on 27 January 2011 the Prime Minister cut $100 million from this program to fund flood recovery in Queensland.2
The Minister’s own website reports that it is only a $100 million program.
The Building Better Regional Cities Program is a $100 million commitment by the Australian Government … 3
Minister Burke needs to come clean on what the actual size of this program is.
Whatever the figure, Labor’s program ignores towns with less than 30,000 people. It completely misses towns like Armidale, Mt Isa and Karratha.
If Labor can’t get these figures right how can we trust them with a $350 billion budget?