Goulburn’s Police Academy will score a new training facility as part of this year’s State budget.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A total $7,062,000 has been allocated for an Active Armed Offender Training Facility to be built at the Academy, ensuring police are better equipped to deal with assailants.
It complements the 100 new police officers funded as part of this year’s budget.
But the major announcements for Goulburn came on Friday, outside the budget process. MP Pru Goward announced $4.5 million for the city’s new performing arts centre and $1.3m to transform the former ceramics room at the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium into a performance and rehearsal space.
The budget, handed down on Tuesday by Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, also allocates $30 million for the next phase of Goulburn Base Hospital’s rebuild. Construction is expected to start either later this year or early 2019.
Ms Goward said the city would also receive its share of 950 extra nurses and 300 doctors across the State’s hospitals and 900 full-time teachers in NSW schools.
“We’ve had a significant share of that in the past and we will again,” she said.
The electorate will receive $41.2 million for road infrastructure, repair and maintenance. Ms Goward said Goulburn Mulwaree would receive a portion of this as well as the traffic lighting subsidy program.
A pedestrian refuge and kerbside blisters will also be built in Clinton Street.
But overall, grants and subsidies for NSW councils have reduced by $32m in 2018/19.
“Outside of the budget, Goulburn has done well with Restart NSW funds, which go towards things like fixing rail, roads and water security,” Ms Goward said.
The received $73.4m in the first round. The second round is due to open later this year.
As part of the budget, an Essential Energy substation at South Marulan will be rebuilt, courtesy of a $4.8 million allocation. Work will start this financial year.
Electorate wide, $3.8m will be spent on water catchment improvements however it’s unclear how much is allocated to this area.
On rail improvements, Ms Goward said she could not see anything specific for Goulburn but generally this came from another fund.
“We are underway with procurement of new trains but we are also considering how to make trains faster between Sydney and Canberra,” she said.
She acknowledged talk of tilt train trials between the two cities had “slowed down” and needed to be sped up again. Although Spanish company Talgo was ready to undertake the trials, Ms Goward said there were huge safety hurdles in bringing the train into Australia.
She told The Post she was hoping to make an argument for faster rail and utilise funds from the $4.154bn sale of Snowy Hydro. The government on Tuesday introduced the Snowy Hydro Legacy Fund Bill, ensuring the proceeds would be spent on regional projects.
Overall, she praised the budget as greatly assisting cost of living pressures. She cited the Creative Kids Rebate, handing $100 to parents to assist with school-aged children’s music, language and other such courses, subsidised access for three-year-olds to pre-school and energy rebates for older people.
“I think it’s a great budget for families and it’s very honest about addressing cost of living pressures,” she said.
The MP also talked up 100,000 extra places in TAFE and extra investment in the sector’s teachers, as well as $6bn to be spent over four years for school infrastructure.
Labor candidate Ursula Stephens has criticised the infrastructure backlog at both Goulburn and Crookwell High Schools. These schools were not on the government’s list to be addressed but Ms Goward said Crookwell High had received funds in the past.