Parkes Shire Council Welcomes Royalties Policy

By Joel ScanlonMar 6 2011

The Parkes Shire Council said that it was happy with the announcement of an elected New South Wales Coalition government committing to a policy of returning financial resources to the mining affected regions. This would translate into thousands of dollars over the next four years in terms of infrastructure projects.

The announcement came last week at the Nationals state election campaign launch. The Coalition said that it would commit $40 million of the $1.5 billion mining royalty that it earned back to the mining regions annually. Upper Hunter MP George Souris said the funding would be modelled on the Western Australia’s Royalties for Regions program.

The Mayor of Muswellbrook Shire also welcomed the proposal and said that it the money was distributed proportionately then the Upper Hunter valley would receive $28 million annually for the next four years. Mayor Martin Rush added that there will be questions about details such as what constitutes a region and what % would flow to each region.

Mayor Rush also said that his preference was that the fund created by any Resources for Regions scheme is allocated strictly to regional infrastructure and to regional and mining affected roads – whether or not that infrastructure or those roads are maintained by local government or by the state government.