REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday, May 14, 2014

FOR the first time in five years, the Gold Coast saw significant funding from a federal budget, with $156m pledged for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. However, up to a quarter of the amount was not even spent on the Coast, with a new velodrome for Brisbane in the running for up to $40m of the funding.

Other contenders for the funds include the Carrara Indoor Stadium, which is to host the opening and closing ceremonies and badminton events.

The Games funding was one of only two mentions of Australia’s sixth largest city in Treasurer Joe Hockey’s inaugural budget, despite the rollout of an $11.6bn infrastructure package.

The other funding allocated for the Coast was $9m for a climate change project at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus.

Money was not allocated for light or heavy rail extensions, the M1 through the Gold Coast, the Evandale Cultural Precinct or any other Gold Coast project.

Mayor Tom Tate was pleased with the budget, saying it struck “a balance between securing future prosperity and dealing with an unprecedented level of inherited debt and deficit”.

“The city and the state government were prepared to commit to the Commonwealth Games very early on and it’s encouraging that one of the first acts of the new federal government is to do the same,” he said.

Cr Tate, an LNP member, said the government’s plan to get the budget back to surplus had rightly taken priority over the “few other big-ticket items for the Gold Coast”.