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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-08 Daily Xml
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REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AUSTRALIA FUND

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (14:50): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Regional Development a question about funding opportunities for community groups and councils in the regions.

Leave granted.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: The minister has spoken previously about the support for regions offered by the commonwealth government, particularly through the Regional Development Australia Fund. My question to the minister is: can she provide an update to the chamber on recent grant funding opportunities for South Australian regional projects?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for her question. I am very pleased to be able to respond to this particular question, as I now have multiple roles and responsibilities, with the common denominator being regions. I refer, of course, to my portfolios of agriculture, food and fisheries, tourism and regional development. Grouping these together enhances and strengthens this government's ability to engage with regions around South Australia under one minister and one CEO. I think this will deliver a much stronger focus for regional South Australia and provide greater efficiencies.

The opportunities and hurdles of a regional area are, obviously, very different and often reflect an area's particular history as its economy has developed through, particularly, agricultural and horticultural industries. These portfolios are complementary, in many ways. The products that we derive from agriculture—the food and wine that we have here in South Australia—are an essential part of the great tourism experience that we try to deliver, and bringing them together under one minister provides capabilities for much greater synergies.

Regional development has so often been shaped by the legacy of economic development carved out by the primary industries of a particular area. For example, infrastructure, rail lines and roads were often first built to serve the needs of agricultural producers to transport their products to market, while many regional towns have their genesis supporting the needs of their local primary industry and its workers.

I am looking forward to the opportunities provided by my new multiple roles to lessen duplication and have clear channels of communication. Members may recall that I mentioned in this chamber the Regional Development Australia Fund. This is a competitive commonwealth government initiative to support the infrastructure needs and economic growth of Australia's regions. In September this year, the recipients of the first round of grants were announced, with South Australia performing extremely well, receiving $15.89 million for six projects from a total of nearly $150 million offered Australia-wide. I think we ended up achieving about 10 per cent of the share.

On 3 November 2011, the federal minister for regional Australia, the Hon. Simon Crean, launched round 2 of the RDAF, which will make available a further $200 million to support priority projects in regional Australia. This presents another exciting opportunity for local government and non-government organisations to put forward their funding applications, and I will be working to ensure that the commonwealth receives another strong round of applications from South Australia.

After the completion of the first round, I am advised that the federal government received feedback from local government and not-for-profit and RDA committees, which prompted the further refinement of guidelines to encourage stronger investment-ready applications which have a clear strategic regional benefit.

Some of the key changes to the guidelines include a two-stage application and assessment process, including a short paper-based expression of interest as the first stage and a stronger role for Regional Development Australia committees. They have also provided for a maximum grant limit of $15 million and, importantly, projects located in capital cities. I know that many members will be interested in this because a number of questions were asked about capital cities' involvement in these grant applications. So, one of the provisions that has been amended includes that projects located in capital cities must be able to demonstrate how the proposed project will benefit the broader regional interests or parts of regional Australia.

I understand the expression of interest stage has been introduced to reduce costs for applicants, as it provides an indication of whether their project is suitable for consideration. I am advised that this new procedure will also help to ensure that all of the proposals submitted to the fund are able to meet the criteria for the fund. It is sort of an early review triage type of process, so I think that should expedite things considerably. Full applications are then assessed by the Department of Regional Australia as are, again, certain eligibility, risk factors and value for money. They then provide advice to the Hon. Simon Crean to make a final decision. So, we look forward to South Australia doing very well in this second round.

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