Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Water Resources and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, the Sydney Basin got an increase. I think the government needs to rethink this. When you have got a million volunteers who are prepared to spend their spare time improving the environment in which they live, I would have thought that they would be encouraged, not pitted against state organisations; not expected to put in large proposals that they do not have the time or the skills to do, so that after several attempts to get a tiny crumb of funding they give up and go home in disgust as large, quasi state government organisations get money to look at issues in the Sydney Basin or up on the east coast of Queensland. This government’s approach to the environment, to water and to the people of regional Australia is an absolute disgrace. (Time expired)

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