Leaders find budget faults
GYMPIE parents may enjoy a nice windfall from the Federal Government's SchoolKids Bonus announced on Tuesday night, but the snubs to small business and the Bruce Hwy have left the region's civic and business leaders cold.
Leaders at all three levels of government condemned the budget's failure to allocate any new money to the Cooroy to Curra bypass, seeing through the budget's attempt to repackage $388 million already set aside for section B of the much-needed upgrade.
Mayor-elect Ron Dyne did however welcome news the Roads to Recovery program would be extended to help councils fix flood-damaged roads and news that financial assistance grants to councils would be brought forward to help hasten that disaster recovery.
The move was labelled a "money shuffle" by Federal Member for Wide Bay Warren Truss, who said: "Wayne Swan's myopic fifth budget has slammed road spending into reverse".
"This is a Labor budget all right - hollow, shifty and not to be believed," he said.
"A fudged surplus, another broken promise on company tax and nothing to spur productivity growth, repay debt or secure jobs."
Gympie businesses said throwing cash bonuses at families usually failed to filter through to small business and expressed disappointment at the government's decision not to cut business taxes.
