Jim Lloyd (Robertson, Liberal Party, Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads) Share this | Hansard source

I support your ruling. To go back to the conference with the ACC chairs, that was a very successful conference at which all three of the ministers responsible for Regional Partnerships spoke on a number of occasions to the area consultative committee chairs and general managers. It was an opportunity for us to discuss how we can continue to have open and transparent discussions in relation to Regional Partnerships. It is interesting that the Labor opposition stand up here and criticise the time it has taken to allocate funding through Regional Partnerships. As members opposite would be well aware, there were some changes undertaken in the process for Regional Partnerships. There is now a three-minister committee. It is chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Special Minister for State, Gary Nairn, and I are on that committee. We meet on a regular basis to discuss partnership programs around Australia and approve them or otherwise.

It is an involved process by which we do take very seriously the recommendations of the area consultative committees. We take into consideration the departmental recommendations. We also take into consideration a number of other matters. But, at the end of the day, ministers are appointed to make decisions in the best interests of their communities. The honourable member claims that he was the one who set up the area consultative committees, and I for one believe that they are an integral part of providing advice to the Australian government. It is something that we very much value.

As far as the underspends are concerned, we certainly are working with the department and the area consultative committees to see if we can in any way streamline the process. But, at the same time, we want a rigorous process which looks at all of the elements for these projects. We will not rubber-stamp a project because of the time it has taken. We often will send projects back for further information before making a decision. That is something that I think is perfectly understandable and something that I would have thought the opposition would welcome.

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