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

That is the point, I say to the Leader of the Opposition. As the member knows, this did not get to my desk; this was not a political decision. The department ruled the application ineligible. Unlike the way that you operated in government, with the Regional Partnerships program, we followed the guidelines.

According to their own costings, only $20,000 was for two Black Dog Institute signs, $30,000 was for two emergency telephones and $15,000 was for additional fencing. I understand from the Minister for Health and Ageing that her department has been in contact with Lifeline about paying for it through the appropriate fund. As I indicated to the member for Wentworth when I spoke to him in private, I was quite sympathetic with action when it came to this, but we had to have a discussion between the council and me about the appropriate program. The fact is the government was not asked for funding for CCTV in this application. We have already funded it at Gap Park, and it has been opened. We have also provided funding for safety fencing. The majority of the funding was for roadworks. So the department had no choice but to determine their application to be ineligible. And I make this point: over the last two years the Rudd government has provided nearly $3.7 million in untied funding to the Woollahra Municipal Council—funding that they can put to whatever priorities they determine to be appropriate.

It has been suggested by the local mayor—who is also running for preselection for the Liberal Party for Vaucluse at the moment—that this program was not successful because it was an application in Wentworth. In the electorate of Wentworth we have provided $2 million for the Waverley Park Pavilion, as the member for Wentworth knows because he was there with me when we announced that funding. In other safe Liberal seats, I was in the electorate of North Sydney in this round to announce the Coal Loader parkland development in North Sydney, and there was $2 million for the Drill Hall in Mosman in the electorate of Warringah, $2.3 million for ocean beach promenade upgrade in Manly, also in Warringah, and $4 million for Narrabeen Lagoon in the electorate of Mackellar.

This is not a partisan program. Mental health is a serious issue, and people should not distort the facts of this matter. I continue to make the offer to the member for Wentworth that if the mayor wants to actually have a serious discussion about appropriate government programs then we are there to assist. But what does not assist is the sort of distortion, frankly, that we have seen in the member’s local papers over the last few days.

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