Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the welcome start of Regional Development Australia, on the mid-North Coast, that is now up and running. There has been an 18 month- to two-year void in regional development right throughout this country. But the coming together of the old New South Wales government state and regional development boards and the old Australian government area consultative committees to make this new RDA body on the mid-North Coast is certainly welcome. We now have executive officers in place. I welcome the appointment of Peter Tregilgas and the establishment of the office in Port Macquarie. It is now down to the hard and practical work of delivering on projects.

The first project that is of great excitement to the mid-North Coast region is the growing gap in resources—in this case, gas—that are being found in our area, in Gloucester, and in Casino on the far-north coast, yet the areas in between on the mid-North Coast, up to this point, have not been on the radar for commercial use and access to what is, essentially, the area’s own product. The AGL project in Gloucester involves piping the gas down to the Hunter, Hexham, to join the gas pipeline there. Obviously, it has commercial use in the Newcastle basin. Likewise, the pipeline from Casino will head north to South-East Queensland, providing obvious commercial benefits there. That leaves a void for about one million people in between those two locations, who, potentially, will be incredibly frustrated about the inability to access their own gas for household or small business use. That is where RDA mid-North Coast wants to kick in and is doing a user survey, a market survey, of the high-demand energy users within the area who will, hopefully, drive some commercial decisions. That survey is currently underway. A request has been made for some support from the federal government. I think it is an exciting example of regional development at work. This body is now pulling together the councils, the businesses in the region and looking at ways that gas—liquefied or in another form—from these two locations can reach the small businesses and the households in the region in an era where electricity prices are heading only in one direction, and that is up. This is a project to be supported, and I would urge the Prime Minister and the executive of government to show that support through some adequate resourcing for the project. (Time expired)