REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (14:35): I have a supplementary question. What is the state government's attitude to the federal government regional development funding that the minister has just outlined being made available to metropolitan Adelaide?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Public Sector Management, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Gambling) (14:35): I believe I have answered that question in this place before. However, the RDAF structure and funding arrangements are the responsibility of the federal government. As I have said, some metropolitan RDAs were set up mainly as advisory boards, and initially it was not anticipated that they would participate in contributing to the funding grant rounds—obviously through local councils, because they themselves are not eligible to apply for grants.

They have a role in helping process applications and construct roadmaps and priorities for their region, so they do have an important role to play, but initially they were not seen to have this role. The federal government changed its mind about that or, if you like, further developed its policy to include metropolitan RDAs in those arrangements. The federal government has allocated, if you like, every part of Australia; be it city, regional or remote, every part of Australia has been made part of an RDA, and that includes city areas as well.

After the federal government included the RDAs, given that it had made it clear that the allocation of the grant funding was not on a per capita or population basis—and therefore states could not necessarily expect some sort of cap arrangement; it would be based on merit—and also given that metropolitan councils, through their RDAs, would then be eligible to apply for grants, my view was that you would have to be crazy not to pick up that opportunity. If you were invited, you would be crazy not be part of those arrangements, given that they were included in the grant funding arrangement. I understand that metropolitan Adelaide applicants did put in applications—I think Victoria Square was one of them; I cannot recall if they included any others—but I know that Adelaide City Council was unsuccessful in receiving any federal funding under this arrangement.

Federal minister Simon Crean is seeking to incorporate all metropolitan RDAs into this new structure, and he has written to me informing me of that. It is his prerogative to do that if he wants, and I have accepted that arrangement. He has also sought funding from South Australia to the metropolitan RDAs, and I have said that currently the state government does not have any funds to contribute to the metropolitan RDA. We have the office in the northern suburbs and the Office for the Southern Suburbs so we believe that we provide significant funding and other opportunities for business development and investment in the metropolitan area. At this point in time cabinet has decided that we will not be giving any additional funds to the metro RDA.