Gladys Berejiklian is refusing to back down on a threat to deny the people of Orange $25 million for a new sporting complex unless they vote for her candidate.
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The NSW premier on Wednesday said the new sporting facility with a 1500-seat grandstand would only be built if Nationals candidate Kate Hazelton was elected on March 23.
"This (facility) will only happen if Kate is the member and I want to make that clear," she said in Orange.
The proposed precinct features a main rugby field and seven sporting fields, as well as a new track and field venue with covered tiered seating and a dual AFL-cricket oval.
Sitting Shooters MP Philip Donato and NSW Labor have accused the premier of attempting to blackmail the community.
"I'm someone who says it like it is and I said it like was," Ms Berejiklian said on Thursday when defending the conditional commitment.
"There's no doubt the election result is going to be very close.
"We want to keep delivering across the state and we can't keep delivering unless we are elected to government."
Junior coalition partner the Nationals lost Orange to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party in a late 2016 by-election.
Ms Berejiklian said she felt "very strongly" about the Shooters.
"I don't want what they stand for to be normalised in NSW," the Liberal leader told reporters in Sydney.
"I don't think the Shooters are a credible mainstream political organisation and I will continue to call them out on that."
Ms Hazelton was preselected as the Nationals candidate for Orange at the weekend after the previous choice, 21-year-old Yvette Quinn, quit in late 2018.
Labor candidate Luke Sanger on Thursday asked Ms Hazelton: "Should Orange get the sports complex upgrade, as promised by Premier Berejiklian, even if you don't win?"
Meanwhile, the mayors of three Sydney councils claim the government hasn't complied with planning department guidelines before moving to knock down and rebuild Allianz Stadium at a cost of $730 million.
They say the coalition incorrectly lodged environmental and management plans before a community committee was formed.
Sydney City, Randwick and Waverley councils on Thursday wrote to Planning Minister Anthony Roberts asking him to defer the first meeting of the committee with Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore arguing it was "farcical" the meeting was called after development decisions were made.
"They want to get it over and done with because it's another tick-the-box planning condition," Ms Moore told reporters.
Australian Associated Press
