REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT BOARDS

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:39): In December last year, I called on the state government to consult widely before making any decision to alter the current structure of South Australia's regional development board (RDB) network. My insistence came after the Commonwealth Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development, Hon. Gary Gray, wrote to the then South Australian regional development minister, the Hon. Rory McEwen, implying that South Australia's RDBs would merge with federal government area consultative committees under the Regional Development Australia program.

Mr Gray outlined the need to 'transition from the existing four area consultative committees (ACCs) and 13 RDBs, to form seven integrated regional development organisations (RDAs)'—and those RDAs would be based around the new South Australian Strategic Plan boundaries. At the time, I publicly stated my concern, as follows:

Clearly, this is the model the Rudd government wants to roll out in South Australia, but no-one I have spoken to is clear about what is being offered, how it will be offered, when it will be offered or even why it is being offered. No-one can tell me what it means for the current resource agreements or staffing and funding arrangements. Any change must not diminish the strong local focus and emphasis on service delivery which are hallmarks of the South Australian RDB framework.

Six months ago [in May 2008], after more than two years of indecision, the RDBs secured funding for five years, under their respective resource agreements, and now we are looking at possibly starting again.

At that time, I also emphasised that consultation must include RDBs; regional local government bodies and their respective peak organisations; the Local Government Association; and Regional Development South Australia. Four months later, we are no closer to a finalised memorandum of understanding, with work ongoing on at least the 10^th draft. The MOU is apparently no longer talking about consultation; instead, it talks about implementation of Regional Development Australia by 1 July 2009, less than three months away. The language has changed. It is as if the merger is a fait accompli. Speculation is rife that the delay in the MOU being finalised is a political ploy by the Rann government to foist forced amalgamations on the boards.

The consultation period has been farcical. Even at this point, volunteer board members and employees do not know what the situation is. There is certainly inherent pressure on boards to amalgamate, and I think that a lot of the boards, whilst they will not reject amalgamation out of hand, are not sure that they want to amalgamate with other boards in the same South Australian government strategic regions.

Other questions have been asked by the boards, such as what will happen to their existing budgets and staffing levels or, indeed, what communities they will be serving come 1 July this year. It is not in the best interests of regional South Australian to have these changes lumped on them without due process, and I hope that the Hon. Paul Caica, the sixth regional development minister in seven years, will intervene and clean up this mess.

I welcome the convening of a forum by the Local Government Association on 24 April this year to canvass all the views of local government, as the important funding partners for the RDB network. I think it is also important to acknowledge the effect that this uncertainty has had on area consultative committees, boards and staff. The uncertainty for staff made by decisions like this is something we have seen in this state with the business enterprise centres and, of course, the regional development boards.

The regional development system in South Australia is not perfect. However, from my studies of other parts of Australia and overseas, I think the model that we have here with the funding partnership between the state and local government is as good as I have come across. The government needs to sort out this mess very soon, and I urge the Hon. Paul Caica to get on and make sure that we know where we are going, as 1 July is approaching very quickly.

Time expired.