LABOR would return $750million – or half the net proceeds from the lease of the Port of Newcastle – to the Hunter should it win government next year, topping the Coalition’s $590million pledge.
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Opposition Leader John Robertson says the share of the $1.5billion net proceeds is what he can ‘‘responsibly guarantee’’, despite having previously pressed the Baird government to give all the money raised by the 98-year lease back to the region.
He is tight-lipped on how Labor would carve up the money but has promised to reveal details soon, including spelling out how it would revitalise Newcastle without removing the heavy rail line.
Mr Robertson said the $750million ‘‘represents one of the greatest single investments in the region’s history’’ and was in addition to the $120million the O’Farrell government put on the table for Newcastle in 2010 – before the port was leased – which Labor would also keep in place.
‘‘It’s something I want to put on the table as a firm election commitment to ensure people across the Hunter understand that we’ve got a genuine commitment to them getting the infrastructure they need to be the best it can,’’ Mr Robertson said.
While polling has Labor as the underdog to win the state poll in March, Mr Robertson is on the hustings ahead of the byelections in Newcastle and Charlestown next month.
The government originally promised only $340million from the port proceeds to truncate the heavy rail and install light rail.
In June, it announced a further $100million for the Hunter Infrastructure Investment Fund and $150million towards the $280 million final stage of the Newcastle inner-city bypass, with the rest of the funding for that project to come from the roads budget.
Mr Robertson slammed the government for the allocation, saying ‘‘the Hunter is entitled to know why every cent ... is not remaining here’’.
He said yesterday that the road would still be built, but that he couldn’t promise more than half the port proceeds given ‘‘the Liberals are signing contracts and allocating money to projects all over Sydney’’ and he was not privy to details of those commitments.
The $750million would go into the Hunter Infrastructure Investment Fund, with the $340million earmarked for truncating the heavy rail to go into new projects instead.
Mr Robertson said light rail may have a place in Newcastle in the future, but for the government to remove heavy rail before next year’s state election, as scheduled, would be an ‘‘act of vandalism’’.
