Mr Brown called it a “nothing budget” which failed to fund renewable energy, Gonski reforms and climate change.

Mr Brown said renewable energy and Gonski funding would be solutions to unemployment in the Hunter.

“[Renewable energy is] the way of the future, it’s where the jobs will be in the Hunter,” he said.

“Mr Turnbull talks about innovation and agility in the workforce, [but] how can we be a smart nation if we don’t fund education properly?

“The Hunter Valley has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, we want jobs for the future.”

The budget included an extra $1.2 billion schools funding, but was $3.3 billion less than what Labor promised under Gonski.

Mr Brown said it was “a budget purely based on winning an election.”

Youth unemployment was also a concern for Ms Swanson, saying the budget was “an attack on the young people of Paterson.”

She criticized the government’s plans for an internship program which will pay job seekers $200 per fortnight, as well as the 20 per cent cut to universities.

"As if the Government’s ‘work for the dole’ program wasn’t bad enough, this Government is now proposing to pay unemployed young people as little as $4 an hour to be involved with ‘internships’,” she said.

“Young people deserve the ability to find decent work and get a proper education.”

Local infrastructure projects such as the Raymond Terrace M1 extension and Testers Hollow were other issues Ms Swanson said were not given a thought.

Ms Swanson also took issue with the tax cuts for multinational companies, proposed privatisation of the Medicare payment system and extension on the freeze of Medicare co-payments.

Ms Swanson said the government was “out of touch.”

“They haven’t even started to understand the difficulties low and middle income earners, young people, and the unemployed actually face in our region,” she said.

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