Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a member of parliament representing a large regional electorate in Victoria, I believe the administration of the Regional Development Australia Fund by the previous Labor government was utterly inadequate. I take issue with the member for Indi, who talked about how well run the RDA Fund was. As we discovered after the election, with project after project, contracts were left to languish. With projects announced under rounds 2, 3 and 4, some 53 projects were left unfunded, with no contracts signed and no intention by the previous government to deliver.

In the case of one project, I spoke to a local council and they were shunted from departmental officer to departmental officer. It was an exasperating and frustrating process. In the case of a round 5 project in my region in Geelong, the project did not even go to the RDA board. The Barwon South West RDA board is meant to review and scrutinise all projects—and I think this is an important point to make to the member for Indi—and it was absolutely disgraceful that the board never saw the project before it was announced by Labor. Yes, there were plenty of announcements, but, when it came to delivery we saw Labor incompetence time after time. In my electorate of Corangamite there was a funding announcement of $4.17 million for a great project, the Golden Plains intensive agriculture project. This was a very important project and one that we have now fixed. Since being elected, in so many respects for these projects we have fixed Labor's mess. We are proudly funding that project and many others, which will deliver 775 jobs over 10 years and generate $160 million worth of investment. In many cases, we had to go in there and fix Labor's mess. But in relation to round 5 projects, the subject of this motion, what we have seen from Labor is no intention, in many respects, to actually even proceed.

An opposition member: Rubbish!

I hear the interjection 'Rubbish!' Well, it is not rubbish, and I will tell you why. The caretaker period was announced on 6 August, and in my electorate all the projects were announced in the caretaker period. Where is the intention to fund the projects? The government is prohibited from entering into a funding agreement during the caretaker period, so it is an unfunded election promise. There were some very good projects—the Torquay North Family and Children's Centre project; the Banyul-Warri Fields stage 2 soccer facility lighting project; 'Lighting the Way' in the Queenscliffe borough; the Smythesdale business and wellbeing hub extension; and the Moorabool Street Bike Safe project, the one that Bike Safe pushed very hard for. There was no intention by Labor to deliver. If there had been an intention, guess what Labor would have done. It would have announced the projects and ensured that the agreements were signed. So it was simply an election commitment. But what is even worse is that, at the time these projects were announced, Labor announced they were fully funded and they would be delivered. That was not only misleading; it was a complete misrepresentation. So again we have seen utter incompetence by Labor in the way in which these projects have been delivered.

I remind the chamber here today that we are proudly committing to regional Australia in a whole range of different aspects. We have a very important Stronger Regions Fund—$200 million per year for five years. We have not said that these round 5 projects will not be considered, but we do require them to be resubmitted with proper governance and proper diligence so that we do not see—and I particularly make reference to the member for Indi—the sort of failure of governance and the sort of incompetence that we saw in relation to one particular project which never even went to the RDA board. That is an absolute disgrace. So there is $200 million a year over five years, $300 million for the new bridges renewal program and $16 billion for major regional roads. We are very proud of the commitment that we are making to regional Australia.

Debate adjourned.

Proceedings suspended from 13:35 to 17:45

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