The former NSW government virtually ignored the Hunter in the last state election campaign while handing out billions of public money in western Sydney under a program the Auditor-General's office says was devised in seven days without a business case.
The NSW Auditor-General's office published a report on Wednesday which found the Perrottet government devised the massive $5 billion WestInvest fund in the lead-up to the 2023 election with no rationale for why it was targeting western Sydney.
The damning report said the Coalition created the fund with "no business case or other economic analysis to support consideration of the potential benefits, costs and consequences of funding a $5 billion community infrastructure program to a specific area of Sydney".
"NSW Treasury was asked to provide the proposal for the WestInvest program within a very short timeframe, during the week prior to the announcement of the program [in September 2021]," the report found.
The Newcastle Herald documented in the weeks leading up to the election in March 2023 how the Hunter received virtually no election commitments while western Sydney was showered with money for new schools, health hubs, art galleries, community centres, swimming complexes, sports fields, "vibrant boulevards" and "grand parklands".
Both major parties regarded winning seats in western Sydney as the key to forming government.
The Auditor-General's office said in its report that it was "not clear" how the government decided which local government areas would be eligible for WestInvest funding.
"Public communication about the program referred to the western Sydney region and commented on areas that had been 'hit hard' by the COVID-19 pandemic," the report said.
"The specific factors that were used to decide which LGAs were eligible were not explained publicly or documented."
Responding to the report, Committee for the Hunter chief executive Alice Thompson said the lack of government investment in the Hunter was "increasingly baffling".
"I'll never say take money from western Sydney, but the Hunter is the largest regional economy, second largest city in NSW and has some of the fastest-growing communities in the state," she said.
"The reality is we need to do both places and the Hunter is not on the radar."
The Auditor-General's report on the integrity and design of WestInvest was released on the same day the Regional Australia Institute published data showing Lake Macquarie, Cessnock and Maitland were among the top 10 local government areas in regional Australia for internal migration.
Lake Macquarie was the fourth most popular destination for people moving from capital cities and Maitland was fourth most popular for people moving from regional areas.
Cessnock had the third-highest growth rate in regional-to-regional migration, increasing 126 per cent year on year.
"When major funding decisions are based on need and merit, the Hunter will always float to the top," Ms Thompson said.
"As a region fundamental to NSW priorities of clean energy, decarbonisation, onshore industry, housing and productivity, it is increasingly baffling why the Hunter does not get more focus and funding from governments.
"For example, it's hard to celebrate Parramatta Light Rail 2 progress when there isn't even a pipeline of public transport infrastructure for the Hunter or funding certainty to implement the strategic regional transport plan in development."
The Auditor-General's office recommended in the WestInvest report that government agencies should ensure advice to ministers was "distinct from ... political considerations".
The Minns government decided after taking office not to fund 11 of the WestInvest government projects and instead allocated this funding to 17 new school, health or transport projects in western Sydney.
"Of these, 15 projects did not have business cases completed, as required by NSW government rules," the Auditor-General's report said.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said on Wednesday that the previous government "were expert pork-barrellers".
"WestInvest is another example of them playing politics with the public's money," he said.
"The NSW government is making better, fairer choices about funding to western Sydney."
The Auditor-General's report said then treasurer Matt Kean was responsible for making decisions on WestInvest.
"The funding advice from the WestInvest steering committee was not followed by the then treasurer and the justifications for the funding allocation decisions were not documented.
"One-third of the projects that were allocated funding (9 out of 27) had been assessed by the WestInvest steering committee as having low or moderate merit.
"These projects were allocated combined funding of $1.1 billion."
The report found 19 of the 27 projects were "examples of 'business as usual' activities of NSW government agencies that did not clearly align with the initial purpose of the program to deliver transformational community infrastructure".
The report said the $3 billion state government projects round of the WestInvest program "did not have a consistent assessment process".
It said school and road projects had been allocated funding after being assessed by the WestInvest steering committee as ineligible or unsuitable for funding against the original program guidelines.
"Infrastructure projects such as these would normally be considered for funding through the annual budget process."
In the $1.6 billion community projects funding round, Mr Kean approved all projects recommended by the steering committee then added another four which had not been recommended.
"For the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA, the then Treasurer's office requested that the Olympic Ice Rink Roof and Amenities Upgrade project ($17.7 million) be recommended," the report said.
"On the day the then Treasurer's Office made this request, the NSW Labor Party had made an election commitment to fund an upgrade of the ice rink.
"There were five other projects within the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA that had received the same score as the ice rink upgrade project that did not receive funding."
