Landscape Priorities Fund

398 Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (3 February 2021). In relation to the Landscape Priorities Fund:

(a) Has this fund been established?

(b) How will the accounts of this fund be reported?

(c) Will each regional landscape board have their own account, or will their funds be pooled in the Landscapes Administration Fund?

(d) Why does the Landscapes Priorities Fund not appear in the budget papers?

(e) How will the Landscapes Priorities Fund be reported?

(f) What reporting does the state government propose, so that the public can understand the basis of transfers of funds between the accounts of regional landscapes boards, the Landscapes Administration Fund and the Landscapes Priorities Fund?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water): I can advise:

(a) On 23 December 2020, I wrote to the chairs of the regional landscape boards advising that I had officially launched the Landscape Priorities Fund for 2020-21. The letter included an invitation for the landscape boards to submit funding applications

The money available from the fund for 2020-21 totals approximately $4.2 million and is sourced from designated levy contributions made by the Green Adelaide Board which were gazetted on 14 January 2021.

(b) The accounts for the Landscape Priorities Fund will be reported in a number of public documents:

as part of the Department for Environment and Water (DEW) annual report

reported in the annual report of the Auditor-General, under the Administered Items of DEW

the Landscape Priorities Fund will also appear as a line in DEW administered items in future budget papers.

Landscape board budgets and expenditure associated with funds derived from the Landscape Priorities Fund will be detailed in the future business plans and annual reports that are prepared by the landscape boards.

(c) Each landscape board has its own deposit account established with the Treasurer. Only the landscape and water levies are paid through the Landscape Administration Fund. All other funding that the landscape boards receive is paid directly into their accounts including any funding that may be received from the Landscape Priorities Fund and from external sources (eg commonwealth funding for the National Landcare Program).

(d) The current source of funding for the Landscape Priorities Fund is a designated levy contribution made by the Green Adelaide Board on an annual basis. The designated levy contribution had not been gazetted at the time the budget papers were being prepared. A budget had not therefore been established for inclusion in the budget papers. The Landscape Priorities Fund will appear as a line in DEW administered items in future budget papers.

(e) The Landscape Priorities Fund will be reported as part of the DEW annual report and will also appear in DEW administered items financial statements published in the annual report of the Auditor General. Future budget papers will also include the Landscape Priorities Fund as a line in DEW administered items.

(f) The DEW administered items financial statements will disclose payments in and out of the Landscape Administration Fund and the Landscape Priorities Fund. The annual financial statements of each landscape board will also detail the funding received from both funds. Similar information will be presented as part of landscape board annual reports.