Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to this motion to take note of the government response to the report of the former Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee into the Regional Partnerships and Sustainable Regions programs. As Senator O’Brien has pointed out, it is a totally inadequate response to that report. It is a totally inadequate response, I believe, to the very serious, important and constructive recommendations made in the majority report. It is particularly inadequate because it has been 14 months since the report was handed down and we get the response from the government to it in the very last days of this year’s parliament. The report was tabled in October 2005 and it has taken almost 14 months for the government to present what I believe is pretty much a pathetic response.

I note that the government response indicates that they agree with a number of the recommendations, or agree in part with a number of the recommendations, of the committee, and I welcome that. But the government have rejected the substantial recommendations, the key recommendations that go to the heart of better accountability and particularly accountability to the parliament.

I note that the government tries to make some capital out of the fact that the committee’s report found the overall administration of the programs to be reasonably sound. We did, and we have always said as an opposition that these programs, properly administered—certainly, the Regional Partnerships program—were a worthwhile way of funding important projects to promote employment and development in regional areas, particularly in areas that had otherwise undergone significant restructuring with the downsizing of rural industries or that had suffered economic hardship more than the rest of the country. The fact that the committee found that does not mean the government can just escape responsibility for the substantial and glaring inadequacies in the administration of the program.

The government response says:

Six case studies cited in the Report from which the majority of conclusions have been drawn are atypical of most projects funded.

The fact of the matter is that the committee, in the time it had available, took the approach of looking at six very important projects or case studies that had been funded under these programs. The flaws, poor administration and political interference in those case studies were substantial. The amounts of money that were involved were substantial. In the case of Beaudesert Rail, for instance, it was of the order of almost $6 million—$6 million of public money put into a venture which was pretty much doomed from the outset, no matter what the good intentions of the proponents were. There was a litany of mistakes and a litany of failure to take action at a time when it would have prevented a substantial waste of taxpayers’ funds.

The Atherton Hotel project has become notorious. I notice that Senator Carr is in the chamber. I am sure he can comment even more about the scandal—