Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity to welcome the Rotary Adventure in Citizenship students in the gallery here today. I am sure both sides of the House are very pleased to see them here. I understand there are 46 delegates from across Australia involved in the program this week. I hope they enjoy their Canberra experience. I hope we inspire them to take on a role in politics in a future life—and I hope we do not put them off too much! It is a great honour to have them here. I wish them well and I congratulate Rotary and the young people involved for taking the time to come to Canberra and be a part of this. I also rise to highlight my concerns in relation to the eligibility criteria for groups seeking access to Regional Development Australia funding. I have written to the minister for regional Australia in relation to this issue and raised my concerns that a very worthwhile project in my electorate will not be able to apply for funding under the current arrangements. By way of background, Southern Rural Water in my electorate has lodged an application through the Gippsland division of Regional Development Australia for funding to support an irrigation modernisation project in the Macalister Irrigation District near Heyfield. The application is to upgrade infrastructure along 21 kilometres of irrigation supply channels to improve efficiencies, which will increase productivity and reduce the loss of nutrients to the Gippsland Lakes. This project fits within the Gippsland Regional Plan and has been supported strongly by Regional Development Gippsland. I am advised, however, that Southern Rural Water was encouraged to submit an application through RDA Gippsland and it was not until late in the process that the organisation was made aware that, as it is a state government not-for-profit enterprise, SRW was not eligible to make an application in its own right. SRW has been attempting to clarify the reasons for this criteria through the department without success at this stage.

It is somewhat ironic that the only organisation capable of delivering water efficiency projects within the Macalister Irrigation District, Southern Rural Water, is precluded from applying for funding. I am concerned that an extremely worthy and otherwise eligible project may be denied the opportunity to seek funding based on the nature of the applicant rather than on the merits of the project. As I said, I have written to the minister along these lines and sought his urgent advice on these issues.

In terms of the merits of the project, we are talking about the modernisation of the Macalister Irrigation District, which is a critical issue for the future prosperity of Gippsland. For those members not familiar with the MID, it is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the nation but the irrigation system itself is ageing and needs to be upgraded. There are some obvious productivity benefits in relation to this project which will be achieved by approving the existing infrastructure. In fact, the project I am referring to today is estimated to increase dairy production by three million litres per year over 20 years. The estimated broader economic benefits are conservatively put at $15 million, which is a good return from a proposed federal government investment of less than $5 million. Just as importantly, the upgrade of the MID delivers important environmental benefits, particularly the Gippsland Lakes and its Ramsar listed wetland areas.

In closing, I seek the minister's support in three ways: either to re-interpret the eligibility criteria to allow the application for funding to proceed; if that is not possible, to amend the criteria for subsequent rounds; or, to allow some extra time for a revised bid in the Gippsland region with an applicant who meets the criteria as it currently stands. (Time expired)

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