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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-09-12 Daily Xml
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RIVERLAND SUSTAINABLE FUTURES FUND

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:28): 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. S.G. WADE: The Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund was a $20 million agreement announced in February 2010. During the rollout of the program, the guidelines have changed several times. The government decided to withhold $5.1 million from the futures fund to, as I understand it, leverage dollar-for-dollar funding from the former federal Labor government. Applications have recently opened again for the final $3.9 million of the fund. My questions are:

1. Can the minister explain why, after announcing $1.07 million to the Renmark Club, there is only $3.9 million left to be distributed?

2. Does that suggest that her attempts to leverage the dollar for dollar funding from the former federal Labor government were unsuccessful?

3. When will the remaining $3.9 million be distributed?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for State/Local Government Relations) (14:29): I thank the honourable member for his most important questions. Indeed, the honourable member is quite misleading. The guidelines for the Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund have quite simply not changed several times. The criteria for eligibility for the Sustainable Futures Fund have remained consistent throughout the fund and, what is more, the time frames have been honoured as well.

I think the only change was to the first year of spending, when it took some time to get the prospectus completed and the uptake was slow, and so we carried over moneys for the second and third year. In terms of the $20 million being fully expended for the original intention—the original election commitment—we have fulfilled that. Not only have we fulfilled that but we have gone beyond that because I have been able to successfully use some of that money to leverage federal commitment into spending and contributing further funds to the Riverland.

Instead of the honourable member whinging and carping and misleading this parliament about changed criteria that have not changed at all, he should be putting forward a vote of congratulations to this government for the enormous contributions that this government and the former federal Labor government made to the Riverland and the river.

We have seen what the opposition's position is. The new Coalition federal government wants to step back from their commitment to the buybacks to the Murray. They want to step back from their commitment for regional spending. They do not want to honour some of those commitments that were made. That is what we see the Coalition doing—stepping back and stepping out of and letting down our regions, letting down our Murray River—and we continue to deliver. We continue to deliver because this Labor government stands up for South Australians, South Australian communities, our regions and our river.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary question to the Hon. Mr Wade.

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