Question Time

Mobile Black Spot Program

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation and for Science and Information Economy questions regarding mobile blackspot funding.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: In round 1 of the Mobile Black Spot Program, the South Australian state government was the only one in the country to contribute absolutely nothing to that program. In round 2 the state government contributed only $2 million. So, across both rounds thus far, the South Australian state government has contributed only about $2 million of the $141.5 million contributed by all state governments, a mere 1.4 per cent of the total amount of state government funding. My questions to the minister are:

1. Why didn't the state government commit any funding at all in round 1?

2. Quite specifically, how much will the state government commit to round 3 of this program?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:19): I thank the honourable member for his question. Everything he says completely falls over when you consider that the federal government did not even take all of our funding in round 2. The honourable member is quite right in part of what he said, but he is only half right, as he often is. We put up $2 million in round 2. The federal government effectively turned away a third of that and refused to fund mobile blackspots here for that final $700,000. If they don't accept all of our money, there is absolutely no point in putting in further money. They would not accept it. They would not accept all of the money we put up this time.

If you look at a comparison with other states, Tasmania, over two rounds, put in a total of $700,000 and received 37 mobile blackspots. Over two rounds, we offered $2 million, only $1.3 million of that was accepted in round 2 and we received a combined 31 mobile blackspots, so we have had double the amount accepted by the federal government compared with Tasmania and have fewer mobile blackspots for it. I am sure the honourable member would agree that we should not be wasting our money, particularly when not all of our money is accepted and we get a raw deal, even worse than Tasmania's.