Local governments and community groups across WA say they have been forced back to the drawing board after the government's decision to up-end regional funding in today's budget.
The government released pre-budget plans to inject $1 billion over three years to two new regional programs, rejecting the 815 community organisations around Australia that applied under the previous government's Building Better Regions Fund.
Labor accused the Liberals of using the fund for so-called pork barrelling of its own seats.
In the Western Australia's north, Wyndham East Kimberley Shire applied for round six funding for a $10-million upgrade of Wyndham's foreshore and a $15-million runway extension at East Kimberley Regional Airport in Kununurra.
The council spent almost $600,000 to ensure both projects were designed and ready for construction, a key criteria under the scheme.
It was a large sum for a council which had a low rate base and a huge geographical area to service.
Shire chief executive Vernon Lawrence said the shire would apply for funding again under the new Growing Regions Program.
But he said going through another application process could be costly, especially as construction costs continued to soar.
"Capital costs on our major construction programs have really blown the lid off a lot of our budgets," Mr Lawrence said.
He said the shire hoped the criteria for the new funding stream would be similar to the Building Better Regions Fund.
"That way we can use a lot of the information that we had to gather for the BBRF applications," he said.
Thousands of kilometres to the south, Ken Clements and his team of volunteers at the Mount Barker Historical Society waited more than a year to find out what would be happening with the funding, after spending days on the application process.
The society had planned to build a shed to house age-old agricultural equipment important to the district's history.
"It's just terrible to see some of the equipment, in the weather, deteriorating," volunteer archivist Camille Inifer said.
The new shed was estimated to cost $133,000 — so the society applied for $50,000 under the Building Better Regions Fund.
"It was supposed to be announced at the end of last year," Mr Clements said.
"Organisations like this are run by volunteers and we're not here every day of the week — and Camille would've put in over 40 hours."
He was hopeful before Labor's announcement that those who had applied would be able to get the money rather than having to do it all again.
Now, he'll be reapplying with the encouragement of O'Connor MP Rick Wilson.
"It's going to be disappointing for people that are going to have to go through this process over again, despite the fact the money they were applying for was allocated in the 2021 budget," Mr Wilson said.
Regional Development Minister Catherine King is currently consulting on the guidelines for the Growing Regions and the regional Precincts and Partnerships programs, a spokeswoman said.
"The minister understands that the communities have put a lot of effort into their applications for round 6 of the Building Better Regions Fund," a spokesperson for Ms King said.
"It is disappointing the previous government failed to deal with the round before going to an election, and more disappointing that Coalition MPs are going around the country attempting to claim election promises as funded projects."
