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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-10-20 Daily Xml
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RIVERLAND SUSTAINABLE FUTURES FUND

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:18): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Regional Development a question about the Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: The Riverland community has raised concerns through the local member, the member for Chaffey in another place, Mr Tim Whetstone, regarding the application and decision processes of the Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund. Given that the Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund of $20 million over four years, which the minister has mentioned a number of times in this chamber, was a 2010 election promise by the government—it is about 40 per cent into the funding period—it is reasonable for the community and industry to expect that almost 40 per cent of the funding will have been committed to assist the Riverland. This is not the case.

After going through all the government's media releases and counting all the projects that have been approved, the figure shows that only about 12 per cent of the money has been allocated. I refer to the minister's statement on Wednesday 19 October in this chamber as follows:

Approval of the Red Earth Farms project brings to around $2.5 million the amount committed for projects to a total value of just over $5.3 million.

My questions to the minister are:

1. Can she confirm that $2.5 million is indeed what the government has committed so far?

2. Can she clarify that, when she mentioned a total value of over $5.3 million, she is not trying to inflate the figure to mislead honourable members in this house in any way?

3. With only 12 per cent of the Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund being allocated at this stage, the Riverland is at risk of losing the potential ability to access the $20 million fund. Will the minister listen to the concerns of the Riverland community and review its decision-making process and restructure the application procedures in any way?

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) (15:19): It is like a worn-out old record. I have answered this question on numerous occasions in this place. There are just screeds and screeds on this in Hansard. I have answered in detail—

The Hon. R.P. Wortley: Exhaustively.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: —exhaustively—but I am happy to do it all over again. It is obvious that the opposition have run out of original questions, and just keep rehashing the old ones. They just go through Hansard, dust out the old questions and start out all over again.

I cannot believe that the Hon. Jing Lee is really suggesting that the application process should not require a rigorous analysis of the financial capabilities of the applicants, the risk assessment and the capabilities of the applicant to deliver what they are proposing. I cannot believe that she is sincerely asking me to be irresponsible and somehow cut corners and allow dud applications to go through.

She would know, because I have gone through this several times in this place, that we have refined a process. It is a process that is timely and extremely thorough, and I have been through that many times. It is thorough because $20 million is a large amount of taxpayers' money. The mums' and dads' taxes are paying out these grants, so there must be rigour attached to it.

We have worked very hard with the agency to balance being able to expedite processing these applications while at the same time applying absolute rigour. To be then standing up in the chamber and talking about the amounts that are spent and the suggestion that somehow there is some conspiracy going on—I have been completely open and transparent. I have listed the number of projects. I have listed the amounts that have been committed. Time and time again, I have come into this place—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The opposition might want to listen. They won't have to ask the same question next week or the week after. The honourable minister.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Thank you for your assistance, Mr President. Every single time, on numerous occasions, I have come into this place and listed the projects that have been accepted and the amount.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: What's the current figure?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: The current figure sits just over $2 million.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: Well, you said 2.5 yesterday.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Well, 2.5. I have listed it so many times in this place. I said over $2 million. I have put this on the record. I have put the amount on the record so many times; they are like a broken old record.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I have been completely open, completely transparent. I have also been completely up-front and honest about the fact that this fund is underspent. That is well documented and well recorded. I have not hidden from that. I have also made it very clear that carryovers will occur within the same program period—the four years that was part of our election commitment. All of that is on record several times. As I said, there is screeds and screeds of it in Hansard. In terms of the particular projects, as I said, each one of those have been documented and the amounts have been put on the record.

The reason that the funding got off to a slow start—and I have put this on the record in the past—is that the building blocks had to be put in place. The roadmap and the prospectus needed to be done. There needed to be building blocks put in place so that it was very clear and transparent for applicants to be able to see where opportunities lay. Those building blocks are now in place and, as we can see, the number of applications has been increasing and I am regularly announcing new ones.

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