An extra $200 million for regional cities

Many of Australia’s regional cities, like Townsville and Mandurah, are bursting at the seams.

They can be useful, too, for political parties, seeking to boost their support.

Julia Gillard has clearly recognises that.

This is what is driving her decision to make $200 million available to local councils in regional cities like these, to provide badly needed amenities, such as more houses, upgraded roads and better parks.

“It is expected that about 15 cities will be successful, receiving up to around $15 million each,” Ms Gillard said.

She has also promised, of course, that spending will be tight, in the forthcoming election campaign.

Ms Gillard has said, too, that she will explain where the money will be coming from, when proposed new spending is announced.

This time, at least, she has done just that.

“Funding for this program will come from a reprioritisation of existing funding for housing,” she said.

“It will gave no net cost on the budget.”

That, of course, implies that there will be losers, as well as winners, as a result of this announcement.

So there will be protests, as well as cheering.

The Housing Industry Association cautiously welcomed the announcement, saying it “makes sense.”

However its managing director Shane Goodwin warned that big backlogs have built up in these areas and said balance would be required in tackling them.

He noted that the announcement meant that 15,000 new homes would be built.