Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was devastated to learn in early February that the federal government was refusing to fund the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council community project that had been developed in San Remo in the southern part of my electorate. This was to support youth in the local area. The thing that was extremely special about this project was that it was a community project that everyone had contributed to, it was a partnership with a number of organisations within the community, a lot of work had gone into it and the previous government committed $2.7 million to fund this project. When I received the minister, I was surprised to hear him say that this was funded through the MRRT, when it was funded through the last budget and was under the RDAF funding. So I was at a loss to see how this would be the case. Furthermore, this funding was announced before the government went into the caretaker mode and the current minister, Minister Truss, is abrogating his responsibility to fund a vital community centre within the Shortland electorate.

I am, as I said earlier, devastated that the government has chosen to take this tack, because so many people have put in so much hard work into the development of the proposal for this centre. The Darkinjung land council has given the land, and organisations such as the San Remo Neighbourhood Centre and Youth Connect and a number of really dedicated people have worked so hard to see this come to fruition. The Darkinjung council, based on the fact that this offer had been made, actually employed an architect to design the building. This was going to have in it training centres, health services and child care in the future ,and it was really going to be a hub, something that is needed in the northern part of Wyong Shire. It seems to me that this government has no vision, will not honour our partnerships and cannot see the benefit of a project like this in a quite disadvantaged area in relation to services. It stands condemned for its failure to honour this proposal and to honour the funds for this and for not being interested in the welfare of the people in Shortland electorate.