Region. WSROC urges rethink on mining funds

The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils has urged the federal government to rethink plans to stockpile the proceeds of the mining boom and instead invest it in desperately needed infrastructure. “We have shown that had the NSW Government paid for Sydney’s eight most recent toll roads using borrowed funds, it would now be $4.6 billion better off, and reaping an income of $380 million a year. “This infrastructure is critical to ensuring the continued economic growth and prosperity of not just Western Sydney but the whole country,” said WSROC president, Clr Alison McLaren, who was responding to comments made by the Reserve Bank Governor, Glenn Stevens who said in a speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia that he believed the Federal Government should lock the money away “for a rainy day.” said the government should use windfalls from the resources boom to invest in the future prosperity and economic growth of the nation