So how did last night's Federal budget affect us here on the Mid North Coast?
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Kellon Beard from the NSW Business Chamber said it was pleasing to see the Mid North Coast had been selected as one of two venues across the country to trial a new model for the jobactive program.
"This program will create online tools to help job ready employees self-serve, and provide employers with the capability to search online for candidates, thus enabling jobs in skill critical industries to be filled in a more timely way," Mr Beard said.
Labor candidate for Cowper, Andrew Woodward, said there were otherwise no real strategies to address our youth unemployment crisis, lower the 2000 plus aged care home package waiting list, make housing more affordable or accelerate renewables with the flow-on of reducing electricity prices.
"Labor is committed to raising the Newstart allowance as well as having a complete review of all welfare payments," Mr Woodward said.
"People on Newstart can barely survive, let alone prepare themselves for work - Labor will be saying more on this in the coming weeks."
He said while some extra funds had been made available to address the massive homecare package waiting list, it was only a bandaid and something Labor also intended to address properly.
And when it comes to climate change, the Government has nothing to offer, whereas labor intended to provide subsidies for home batteries for solar units.
"Here on the Mid North Coast we have one of the highest take-ups of solar, so we want to help people make the best use of that by offering subsidies for to help them purchase batteries so they can store the power for use when its needed."
The Member for Cowper Luke Hartsuyker said all five shires in the electorate benefited through bigger Roads to Recovery grants.
Nambucca Shire's share will rise $770,000 from $3.07 million to $3.84 million.
Kempsey will be up $1.16 million from $4.64 million to $5.80 million.
Bellingen's allocation will go up by $594,000 to $2.97 million from $2.37 million.
Mr Hartsuyker said the Roads to Recovery program was one of the very best programs run by the Federal Government in support of regional communities because funds go directly to councils meaning every dollar held its full value.
There was also $550 million for the mobile Black Spots program and $571 million for renewal of old bridges and spending on heavy vehicle safety.
For more detailed information have a read of the following articles:
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