By Xavier Smerdon
WYNDHAM advocacy groups have slammed the State Government after a lack of funding into the area was blamed on “tight” times.
Speaking at a ground-breaking ceremony at the future site of Wyndham Harbour, Minister for Planning Matthew Guy said that Wyndham did not receive more from the State Budget because of a lack of money.
“We obviously do whatever we can with the resources available – money’s tight at the moment,” Mr Guy said.
Executive Director of the Committee for Wyndham, Nik Tsardakis, told Star the comment was not good enough.
“Money has always been tight,” Mr Tsardakis said.
“Given that Wyndham is a growth corridor and it is picking up the bulk of migration as well as internal movement, it really does deserve something better.”
All sides of the political spectrum criticised the State Budget when it was released earlier this month for “ignoring” Wyndham.
But Mr Guy pointed to the government’s commitment to deliver the Regional Rail Link as one major project that would benefit Wyndham.
“We’ve put quite a bit of money into the Regional Rail Link,” he said.
“It’s now predominantly going to be State Government money to advance the project to ensure that there’s two passages of transport from Werribee to the city area from the employment precinct, from Werribee itself and that will actually give Werribee an advantage over other growth areas.”
Mr Tsardakis said that residents would soon get sick of the new State Government if there was not a quick physical injection of funds.
“The people that live here currently are already frustrated, but I think that the people that are buying a house out here because it’s affordable will quickly find out that owning a house is just one issue,” he said.
