Member for Myall Lakes, Stephen Bromhead and member for Port Macquarie, Leslie Williams are the central characters of 'A Tale of Two Electorates' and its author, Independent candidate for Myall Lakes, Steve Attkins, sells it as an analysis of electorate funding outcomes that sees Mrs Williams "outperforming our electorate about five to one in actually delivering funding to her community."

Mr Attkins says it gives substance to community concerns and conversations about NSW government funding outcomes for the Myall Lakes electorate and contends "the differences between the two electorates are significant."

"Just based on what each has openly announced, Mrs Williams has managed to secure roughly three times the money for environmental issues, and in what I think is a very important category, she has managed to get over seven times as much funding for infrastructure and transport projects," Mr Attkins said.

"The member for Port Macquarie has managed $3.2 million in health funding delivered just last year. Here in the Myall Lakes electorate, we had about $4000 delivered. I think we would all like to know why.

"Just looking over the figures for last year, it is clear that Leslie Williams is outperforming our electorate about five to one in actually delivering funding to her community," Mr Attkins said.

Information in 'A Tale of Two Electorates' is collated from the "press release, email newsletter or printed quarterly newsletter announcing the actual funding delivered" by Mr Bromhead and Mrs Williams in 2014, according to Mr Attkins.

He says that "only actual funding delivered in the 2014 period was counted" and that "funding delivered was counted even if the project was underway and not fully completed during that period" and that "regional or State projects with most or all application outside of the local electorate ... were not credited to the local member's funding deliveries."

Mr Attkins says people in the Port Macquarie electorate "get far more funding in total and in person."

"Looking to our neighbours to the north, while our Myall Lakes electorate has about 1400 more people than the Port Macquarie electorate, 67,790 versus 66,307 at the last census, Port Macquarie gets far more funding in total and per person," Mr Attkins explained.

"You can look directly at funding from the State that each of our elected representatives have worked to get for their communities. The difference is vast the member for Port Macquarie has been very effective over the last year and her efforts really show.

"Wins for the Port Macquarie electorate like the $8.3 million for the Lake Cathie school, and $3.2 million for the Port Macquarie Hospital were just two out of 10 multi-million dollar funding announcements last year by the member for Port Macquarie. The Myall Lakes electorate saw just two in total with $2.8 million delivered for Nabiac road works, and $1.5 million for a street upgrade in Tuncurry.

"Something is missing and my observation is that the current member does not seem fully able to get the money we need. The funding gap brings up big questions for us all.

"It has just been demoralising for so many of us in the business community, at the local chambers, clubs, and community groups to see so many worthy projects not being supported. Golden opportunities have simply slipped through our fingers or been sidelined.

"I have listened to so many good and kindhearted people in our community who are desperately trying to fill the gap between the reality of providing services in Forster and Taree, and the shortfalls in state government funding.

"The disappointment they feel is real, and is felt deeply by many, from the Pink Ladies supporting Manning Hospital, our Rotary clubs scratching to gain funds for worthy

projects, to the hardworking volunteers of Tidy Up Taree just not getting the political support they need to secure funding. But it's not just the community funding projects which are going without. There has been no funding to support major initiatives such as the Northern Gateway freight hub, which would have created some 129 jobs just in the construction phase alone.

"The 'knock-on effect' is such that the development proposition for other investors is also diminished. The restarting of the UGL site for heavy manufacturing has failed to date to attract any support from the local member. Both of these projects would conservatively create over 550 jobs in the construction phase and in ongoing skilled positions into the future.

"Our community just wants its fair share of State funding and we really want the opportunity to create local jobs and a meaningful future for our kids."

At the time of going to print, Member for Myall Lakes, Stephen Bromhead had not responded to the request of the Manning River Times for comment on the claims made by Mr Attkins. The invitation to comment was extended to Mr Bromhead on February 11.

28 per cent State government funding gap