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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-18 Daily Xml
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Building Better Regions Fund

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (14:36): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development a question regarding the regions—and hopefully she will answer.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. N.J. Centofanti interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Sit down. The honourable Leader of the Government listened to the question in silence. You have sought leave; is leave granted?

Leave granted.

The PRESIDENT: Please ask your question.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: In The Australian yesterday, it was reported that the federal Labor government will target more than $10 billion in funding for regional projects and have confirmed that grants such as the Building Better Regions Fund that were established under the previous federal Liberal government face cuts or axing altogether. In February 2022, Peter Malinauskas pledged $2.7 million—

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Peter Malinauskas.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: —towards the Mount Gambier saleyards as an election promise as the state's contribution to the Building Better Regions Fund. My question to the minister is: if Anthony Albanese fails to honour the commitment made by the previous Liberal federal government to fund the Mount Gambier saleyards, amongst other projects—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: —will the Malinauskas Labor government commit to funding the project and, if not, will they concede—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: —that it is a failed election promise?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Please, I would like to hear the minister's answer in silence.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley: Pork-barrellers.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wortley, that includes you. Silence, please. I call the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:38): It's a quite remarkable question from the opposition. The Building Better Regions Fund, round 6, was closed, I think, in November or December last year. The federal election was—now, let me think; wasn't that May this year? It was five or six months later, yet what had the federal Liberal government done in terms of that round of the Building Better Regions Fund? What had they done? Zilch, zero, absolutely nothing. We didn't see the outcomes of that round of building better regions funding. That's six months they had—the federal Liberals, the colleagues of those opposite—six months they had to deal with that round of funding, and what did they do? Zero, zilch, nothing.

So to come in here now complaining, saying, 'What is happening to that funding'—they should ask their Liberal colleagues from the former federal government. Why didn't they ask their Liberal colleagues in the former federal government when they had the power to do something? How many questions were asked then of the former federal Liberal government by those opposite? Did they care then? Did they make inquiries? What did they do?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the opposition and the Hon. Mr Wortley!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Gerolamo, the Hon. Ms Curran!

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, sit down, please. I would like to hear the minister's answer, please, in silence.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wortley!

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: It is quite remarkable to hear the interjections from those opposite that they deliver for the regions. Clearly, they did not deliver for the regions at all following their Building Better Regions Fund. They did not ask the questions. They did not demand that the former federal Liberal government actually deliver on any promises. They did not demand that that funding should be coming through.

The Hon. N.J. Centofanti interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter!

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter, I would like to listen to the minister, not you. Minister, please continue.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Now to turn to the specific program or specific request for funding to which the honourable member referred. In case they are not aware, the Mount Gambier and District Saleyards are located 10 kilometres east of Mount Gambier on the Princes Highway at Glenburnie. They are owned and operated by the District Council of Grant and are the largest cattle exchange facility in the Limestone Coast region.

The Hon. N.J. Centofanti interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The honourable Leader of the Government, stop it!

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: The saleyards are a key part of the agricultural sector in the region, generating $593 million worth of livestock sales over the past five years and social and wellbeing outcomes to the primary producers.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Continue minister, please.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: It is a shame that those opposite don't want to hear about social and wellbeing outcomes for primary producers.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: Point of order: the minister is clearly reading from a document—can she table it, please?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: I have copious notes. In the 2020-21 financial year—

The PRESIDENT: You can table a document. Continue with your answer, please, and move on.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Thank you. If those opposite imagine that I had documents to be reading from about the failures of the federal Liberal government under the Building Better Regions Fund, they must be aware of the failures of that government and they should be asking questions about that of their own national colleagues. However, in 2021—

The Hon. H.M. Girolamo interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Girolamo! Minister, please can you speed this up so we can move on?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: It is an important issue, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: Yes, I understand it is important.

The Hon. N.J. Centofanti interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: What happened at the end of last year when the Grant district council approached both the existing state Liberal government and the then Labor opposition was: who was it who first committed the $2.7 million towards the District Council of Grant's saleyards project; who was it that made that commitment first and foremost? It was the Malinauskas opposition, the Labor opposition at the time. We have that funding there waiting in the budget. We have recommitted to that funding, and I am certainly looking forward to developments, and I certainly hope that that project does come to fruition, despite the lack of action by both the state and federal Liberals prior to the relevant elections.

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wortley, you are not helping. The Leader of the Opposition, your third question, please.

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