The Premier said the strategy was in response to the key priorities raised by the community during the NSW State Plan consultations in August.

“Our State Plan is all about listening to the community and setting clear goals about how we are going to address its priorities,” Mr Rees said.

“Transport has been identified as a clear priority for the Hunter, so we’ll be building on our already extensive transport commitments in the Hunter and developing a strategy in 2010 that deals specifically with local transport issues.

“The community also told us about the importance of maintaining regional roads, in particular the roads in the Hunter Valley vineyards.

“The State Plan now includes a target to improve the quality of our urban and rural roads so that they meet the national standards.”

The other issues identified as community priorities included improving public transport across the Hunter, further diversifying the Hunter economy, investing in and maintaining public infrastructure and increasing frontline workers.

“The NSW Government is already responding on a number of those fronts with initiatives such as developing a Regional Business Growth Plan for the Hunter,” he said.

“We’ve also established the Defence Industry Precinct to help attract defence contracts and up to 2000 jobs to the Hunter.

Mr Rees said the State Government had also invested an additional $3 million through the Hunter Advantage Fund to continue to help local businesses.