Member for Monaro John Barilaro said work was anticipated to begin in the current financial year, however he wouldn’t specify how long the project would take to complete.

In the NSW Budget released earlier this year, funding was allocated for $2.4 million of the promised $17 million upgrade.

“The amount budgeted for 2016/17 accounts for the early mobilisation phases of the project,” Mr Barilaro said, without commenting specifically on what that would entail. However, Labor is accusing the NSW government of breaking a promise by failing to commit the full funding amount in the latest Budget.

Regional Labor spokeswoman Courtney Houssos, a member of the NSW Legislative Council, said the Queanbeyan Police Station was a key election commitment.

“Queanbeyan police work extremely hard and do a fantastic job, but they can’t continue to work in outdated and overcrowded facilities,” she said.

“John Barilaro has tried to get away with not delivering his election promise, by pretending that the $2.4 million for Queanbeyan Police Station will fix the overcrowding and poor conditions,” Ms Houssos said.

“But it won’t even make a dent.”

Mr Barilaro announced the multi-million dollar station upgrade in the lead up to last year’s election. He said the $17 million promise, along with others, would launch an “unprecedented era of investment in services and infrastructure” for the region.

Ms Houssos said she was concerned work would not really begin on the project until just prior to the next election. 

She said the existing station, built in the 1970s, was already overcrowded, while demand for services was skyrocketing.

Ms Houssos questioned how the government could be claiming to be building for the future when they were still $14.6 million away from delivering an election commitment.