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

In this place on 14 February and again on 3 March this year I spoke about the importance of the redevelopment of the Burrinja Cultural Centre in Upwey, in my electorate of La Trobe. In August last year I announced that the Shire of Yarra Ranges had succeeded in applying for around $2 million in federal government funds to go towards a $10 million upgrade of the Burrinja Cultural Centre. The $2 million was requested by the state Labor minister, James Merlino, as an SOS call for the project, and also by the council itself.

Late last year, representatives of the Shire of Yarra Ranges met with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government for preliminary discussions. However, as I understand it, the formal contract was not signed off. I was therefore extremely disappointed to read recently in the Age newspaper that the Regional Partnerships program has been axed and that ‘existing contracts will be honoured but all uncontracted applications will be dumped’.

The Burrinja project represents the culmination of many years of work by the local community, including local schools, to establish a regional performing arts venue. Federal funding was a fantastic result for the arts community everywhere from Ferntree Gully and all the way across the hills to Emerald and beyond. It came about after the dedication of people like Elizabeth Connally and Ross Farnell of Burrinja and Chris Dupe of the Shire of Yarra Ranges.

The application had strong support from 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. It had great community and bipartisan support. A number of local people, organisations and community groups also wrote to me to express their support, including: the Belgrave Community Arts Partnership; the Hills Film Group; Utassy Ballet School in Sassafras; St Joseph’s College Ferntree Gully; Olinda Primary School; Mater Christi College in Belgrave; Belgrave Heights Christian School; Sassafras Primary School; and the Probus Club of Belgrave.

The funding was to be used to build a 400-seat performing arts centre, upgrade Burrinja’s existing facilities and construct a new Indigenous cultural education garden. This was the only Indigenous project in my entire electorate. Prior to the last election the Labor Party made a number of allegations about the Regional Partnerships program, but even the most partisan Labor member could see that the Burrinja project was a terrific project and was bipartisan. As one might expect, withdrawing federal funding from Burrinja was not raised by my Labor opponent in the election campaign last year. It so happens that my Labor opponent and the new Labor arts minister, Peter Garrett, held a morning tea at Burrinja during the election campaign on Friday, 2 November 2007. Needless to say, there was no mention at that morning tea that a Rudd Labor government would jeopardise federal funding and therefore the entire Burrinja upgrade.

If the Labor Party wants to withdraw federal funding, and it now appears that it has for Burrinja, it and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett, will be guilty of deceiving the Burrinja Cultural Centre and using it for their own political gain. That is a disgrace. Also disgraceful is the arrogance shown by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Mr Albanese, and Parliamentary Secretary Gary Gray, who have failed to respond to repeated attempts by both my office and the Shire of Yarra Ranges to gain information about the status of the funding of this and other projects. The appalling way in which Labor has handled this matter has galvanised the local community, and I intend to fight as hard as I can on behalf of the local community until the $2 million in funding is restored.

It is very sad to see funding cuts in my electorate of La Trobe, especially in the hills. The two major areas loved by those in the hills are the arts and the environment, and there has been a funding cut of $2 million for Burrinja Performing Arts and of $450,000 to tackle weed control, a biological control for wandering trad.

When Minister Garrett was in my electorate he discussed both issues. He never mentioned that the weed funding would be cut nor that the funding for Burrinja would be cut. It is now almost six months since Labor was elected. I hope Labor learns quickly that there is a real world that exists beyond Kevin Rudd’s political agenda, and that it is grossly unfair and utterly gutless to keep community organisations in limbo for months on end until budget night comes around and then to cut existing funding commitments made by a previous government.