House of Assembly Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1) 54 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Regional Growth Fund Regional Growth Fund Mr ELLIS House of Assembly Narungga Regional Growth Fund Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! Mr ELLIS House of Assembly Mr ELLIS: Can the minister update the house on the number of applications received through the competitive round of the Regional Growth Fund? The Hon. S.K. Knoll House of Assembly The Hon. S.K. Knoll: You're falling apart. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The Minister for Transport will cease interjecting, please. Minister. The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE House of Assembly Chaffey Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (14:52): Thank you, sir, and I thank the member for Narungga for his keen interest in the Regional Growth Fund. I am sure that there are a number of his constituents who have applied for what is, I would say, a critical piece of funding to build and grow our regional sector. I am very pleased to say that there has been an extremely high interest in the Regional Growth Fund. Applications for the $5 million competitive grants closed on 31 August, and I can now announce that we have received 84 applications. I think that is an outstanding achievement, and it just goes to show that regional South Australia has been crying out for that accelerator funding for regional projects, infrastructure and community projects. What it is showing me is that the previous government had a development fund for the regions. They were picking winners over and over again, so what it was doing in small communities was driving a wedge—one person next door to the other was given a competitive advantage over his competitive neighbour. What we have done is we have opened up this competitive round that is specifically targeted for clustering, for collaboration, for regional communities, for businesses that will largely benefit in a collaborative way. It is about commodities benefiting rather than individuals, and so what we have seen is that this criteria that has been put in place will be independently assessed by that independent chair who will make recommendations to me as the minister to make sure that we get the best value for taxpayer spend in our regional centres. Obviously this government has made a long-term commitment—10 years and $150 million we have committed to the Regional Growth Fund—which is a commitment that the others on the other side could not give. We have given a long-term commitment so that regions can plan ahead. Of course, the $5 million is bolstered by the $10 million continual fund as part of the Regional Development Fund. That $10 million is put in place so that businesses, so that regional communities, can actually leverage other moneys, whether it is through the commonwealth government, whether it is through industry, whether it is through local government or whether it is through community clustering. That money will be best value for taxpayers. I also remind everyone that that $10 million, on top of the $5 million, will be rigorously assessed as part of my portfolio. It won't just be given out willy-nilly. There will not be businesses that are given government money and then realise that they can't match the funding or they can't continue with that project. I think it's critically important that taxpayers' money is invested into our regions of South Australia wisely, and that will be taxpayers' money best spent.