The Canberra region is in the middle of a battle between the major parties after a billion-dollar regional infrastructure fund was scrapped while boosting the public service in a move described as a "slap in the face" for regional and rural Australians.
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Infrastructure Minister Catherine King on Monday announced Labor would dump the former Coalition government's Building Better Regions Fund, a $1 billion regional infrastructure program, replacing it with two new programs for the regions.
But the announcement drew strong criticism from the Coalition, who said it showed Labor's bias for the nation's capital over the regions, as the government prepared to release its upcoming budget on Tuesday.
The opposition's immigration spokesperson Dan Tehan slammed the move, pointing to Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher's promise to boost the public service while cutting a key funding program to the regions.
"Today, Katy Gallagher has cut funding to the [BBRF], the main regional program that delivers community projects right across this nation. At the same time, she's boasting on the front page of The Canberra Times that she will be delivering more public servants to Canberra," Mr Tehan said.
"What a slap in the face for regional and rural Australians. BBRF goes, says Katy Gallagher, and she does not care one little bit. In the same breath, more public servants for Canberra.
"That shows where the priorities of this government are."
The Australian National Audit Office released a damning report in July showing almost two-thirds of grants given from the regional infrastructure program were against department recommendations.
A ministerial panel, which consisted of Coalition members and oversaw many of the funding decisions, was found to have increasingly relied upon "other factors" in the decision-making process, inconsistent with departmental advice.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud, who sat on two of the ministerial panels, said his colleagues were uniquely placed to know what was happening in the regions rather than public servants in Canberra.
"Just because a bureaucrat in Canberra thought a priority in one part of the nation was more important than another - we didn't think [that] was the right way to decide how ... that money should be distributed," he said on Monday.
"I don't want a bureaucrat telling me what should happen in Thargomindah compared to what's happening in Roma.
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"With all due respect, [bureaucrats are] great people but they know three-fifths of bugger all outside this place.
"I don't have a lot of confidence in them telling us how ... we should administer money."
The Coalition's regional development spokesperson Bridget McKenzie said Labor was framing all spending in regional Australia as wasteful, which was incredibly offensive to the 9 million people who lived outside a capital city.
"There's claims of politicisation of these funds. What a joke... those programs are there to overcome the inherent disadvantage [of living in the regions]," Senator McKenzie said.