Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

The bishop blessed the slab, according to the parliamentary secretary. It is absolutely extraordinary. But it was not completed because the program was dysfunctional. We have the extraordinary situation in which they talk about delay. I look at the dates on which these projects were approved—many of them early in 2007 and many of them, it must be said, just prior to the election being called, just like it happened in 2004. That is what the Australian National Audit Office has identified as being an issue.

There were projects from legitimate community organisations who, through no fault of their own, believed that a contract was about to be fulfilled by the government—projects such as one in Bundaberg which had a sign up on the fence saying it had been funded by the federal government—and it was legitimate for them to think that an agreement had been fulfilled. We wanted to ensure that they had the opportunity between the government’s announcement and 31 July for that contract, as it was offered, to be fulfilled. We are not reopening the process. For those projects that are not time sensitive and that were not ready to be completed, an application can be made under the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure program, which will commence in the following financial year. But these projects will all be subject also to oversight by the Department of Finance and Deregulation. Frankly, that has to be the case when you have projects such as some of the ones that have been approved and provided with funding. One of those was approved on 19 September 2007 for the town of Lock on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. It is a $60,000 project. Would you think that was for really important community infrastructure? Well, this is for the development of a new toilet for the people of Lock. Lock has one hotel, one motel, one caravan park, one supermarket, a school, a post office, a police station, a golf club and a town hall. It got approval for a toilet for $60,000. Lock has 290 residents, so that is $206 per person. But the department did not approve funding for this. This is one of the ones where ministerial discretion was used— (Time expired)

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