Mr Grant welcomed the budget handed down by NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet on Tuesday, and said residents in his electorate should be pleased with the funding that was coming out west.

“It’s all systems go, with in excess of $130 million to be spent on projects. This is big buckets of of money for some very important projects,” he said.

Mr Perrottet handed down a budget that included a $4.5 billion surplus for the state for 2016-17, and almost $73 billion of infrastructure projects over the next four years.

The Dubbo electorate’s allocation for the upcoming 12 months included $43.3 million for the continuing work on stages three and four of the Dubbo Hospital redevelopment, $38 million for the region’s roads and $25 million to complete Wellington’s rapid-build prison.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo will receive $7.5 million for its visitor experience program and Dubbo will benefit from $753,000 for the Youth on Track program, which is aimed at reducing reoffending rates for young offenders.

However Mr Grant said one of the items he was most excited about was $3.5 million to help cover the maintenance backlog for schools in his electorate.

“I asked for $1 million to help fix the backlog and got $3.5 million so that is a fantastic outcome. Very exciting,” the Dubbo MP said.

Mr Grant said there had been a concerted effort by the government to increase infrastructure spending in rural and regional NSW, and said Dubbo was reaping the benefits of that.

“Regional NSW gets a locked in 30 per cent of normal spending but in addition to that there is $1.3 billion in additional funds that will be used exclusively for regional projects,” he said