Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to discuss three very important funding applications in my electorate of La Trobe. In August last year I announced that the Australian government was to contribute around $2 million to the Shire of Yarra Ranges as part of a $10.7 million upgrade of the Burrinja cultural centre in Upwey. This came after the work of people like Elizabeth Connally, Ross Farnell of Burrinja and Chris Dupe of the Shire of Yarra Ranges. This application has been strongly supported by the state Labor member, Minister James Merlino; the Mayor of the Shire of Yarra Ranges, Tim Heenan; Councillor Noel Cliff; and former Councillor Louis Delacretaz. The funding will be used to build a new 400-seat performing arts centre, to upgrade Burrinja’s existing facilities and to construct a new Indigenous cultural education garden. However, as I understand, the formal contract has still not been signed off. Suddenly the project has stalled and has been placed on hold. Apparently the Labor government’s philosophy at a federal level is that, if the final contract documentation has not been signed, it is fair game for their razor gang. It is time the Labor government made their position on the status of this project clear.

Secondly, in June last year after a great deal of hard work Barbara Rose, Principal of Kallista Primary School, applied for $150,000 to build a school and community children’s kitchen under the Healthy Active Australia grants. Kallista Primary School is one of 20 Victorian primary schools who are part of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Project, with children in grades 3 to 6 spending a one-hour session each week in the school’s produce garden. Here they plant, care for and harvest the fresh produce, from which they prepare meals for themselves and volunteers in the kitchen. Because of delays, Kallista Primary School has not been able to determine whether they can actually go ahead with this project and are relying on local donations. I call on the Rudd government to make a decision on this project.

Finally, the Sherbrooke Art Gallery submitted a Regional Partnerships application in July 2007. Sadly, again, this application still has not been assessed. Jane Warming has put in a magnificent application with Michael Freshwater and Max Bartlett. Again, the state Labor government has contributed to this project. So, previously we had all levels of government in La Trobe—council, state and federal—working tirelessly to get these projects up and running. The society has received, as I said, $70,000 from the Victorian government. It will be very sad to see the Sherbrooke Art Gallery, the Kallista Primary School project and Burrinja not go ahead because the Rudd government does not care about local community groups.