THE fate of tens of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure promises for Wagga hang on the election outcome of seven coastal electorates.
As the election count stands the Coalition has won 70 seats in the lower house; Labor holds 67; Nick Xenephon Team picked up two; Greens have one; there are three independents, and seven seats are still too close to call.
To form a majority government Labor or the Coalition would need to win 76 lower house seats.
While Nationals MP Michael McCormack registered an emphatic victory on election day, his funding promises depend on the Liberal-National Coalition forming government.
Chief among them was a federal contribution of $10 milllion to fast-track the city’s levee bank upgrade.
“It’s one of the reasons Committee 4 Wagga (C4W) wanted to make sure promises like the levee bank upgrade funding were matched by Labor,” he said.
“But Labor never matched it and obviously it will be a lost opportunity if Bill Shorten forms some form of minority or majority government.”
During the campaign Labor candidate Tim Kurylowicz said he had “no doubts whatsoever if Labor was in government, they would look to match (the levee bank) funding”, but Mr McCormack said that wasn’t good enough.
“It’s all when and good for the Labor candidate to say ‘I've spoken to Mr Shorten or Mr Albanese’, but there was no firm commitment for the levee bank upgrade under a Labor government,” Mr McCormack said.
Other big ticket promises made by Mr McCormack during the election include a $2.5m contribution to seal Dunns Road and $246,000 for Ardlethan and Ganmain pool upgrades.
Labor’s Tim Kurylowicz claimed there were plenty more bipartisan spending commitments than Mr McCormack suggested.
“Defence base upgrades in the white paper were fully supported by Labor and we’re committed to roll those out on same time frame, with same budget,” he said.
“Mobile phone blackspots; that’s a $60m bipartisan commitment that gets funded either way, inclufing Wantabadgery.
“And if Michael McCormack wants to talk about what Wagga stands to lose, how about the $211m dollars to schools in Riverina alone under Gonski funding and the $50m Labor pledged to high speed rail.”
