EMPTY PROMISES FROM THE NATIONALS

Independent Member for Port Macquarie, Peter Besseling, has called on the National Party to release the details of the Lake Cathie School project announced in a letter box drop this week.
 
"This announcement has been slipped through people's letterboxes, without any detail whatsoever as to where the school will be located, how much it will cost and what is going to be the impact upon the newly-upgraded North Haven Public School.
 
"This continues the trend of National Party announcements for this campaign, that have either been previously announced by the current government ($2 billion for Stronger Together), are tokenistic  ($1.5m for dredging) or have been completely misleading (an extra $75m for PMBH).
 
 
"The electorate is now asked to believe that a new school that is unfunded and has no detail attached, and no time line for construction, will be built in Lake Cathie. The community deserves to see a detailed commitment before the state election.
 
"The site that the National Party has campaigned for has serious environmental constraints, is located next to a bottle shop and has poor bus access. The site is not supported by the Lake Cathie Progress Association. Furthermore, the construction of a new school at Lake Cathie is not supported by the Education Department at this time, due to the impact on student numbers at North Haven.
 
"The Nationals' candidate would be much better advised to lobby Barry O'Farrell to commit this money to their unfunded hospital announcements that were made last week for extra parking at the hospital.
 
Nationals funding announcements so far
 
  • $2 Billion for Stronger Together   
           Previously announced by NSW Government, Dec 2010
           http://www.nds.org.au/news/article/1074
 
  • $75 million for Port Macquarie Base Hospital (additional to Federal money)
          Misleading statement, no additional money available
 
  • Extra Parking for Port Macquarie Base Hospital - unfunded
      
  • $1.5 million for dredging statewide. ($16,129 per electorate)
    Dredging strategy for Port Macquarie-Hastings LGA alone estimated at $4.35m
    State commitment past 5 years across NSW is $5.15 million