Rocky and Gladstone to share in $500m budget windfall
ROCKHAMPTON and Gladstone will share more than half a billion dollars of state funding, with the government funding the completion of Rockhampton Hospital and the expansion of RG Tanna Coal Terminal.
Treasurer Tim Nicholls will tell Parliament this is a worker budget - one of building and fortifying the state - "not one of flashy new announcements and programs".
Rockhampton will be given the final $13.6 million to finish its hospital expansion, plus another $5 million to build a helicopter pad on its roof.
RG Tanna will be given $50 million of the $90.5 million it needs to expand the port.
Gladstone State High School will score $3 million to help it prepare for accepting Year 7 students from next year.
The state and federal governments will also spend a shared $47 million to build up the Bruce Highway where it crosses the Yeppen floodplain, south of Rockhampton.
Mr Nicholls said the lack of headline-grabbing promises will allow the government to achieve a small surplus of $188 million by mid-2015.
TIM NICHOLLS' BUDGET SPEECH IN FULL
THE BUDGET STRATEGY AND OUTLOOK
