Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to have a look at the individual circumstances of your RDA and why that argument of the funding having been reduced pertains to them. In fact the budget allocates another $20 million for the RDAs. It is not just the allocation to the RDA; there is also capacity for those looking to lift their capacity in certain areas. We have utilised this, for example in the Murray-Darling Basin exercise, to identify capacity building, go out and contract that. So there are important opportunities there.

As for the two programs you have mentioned, the Pinjarra and the Ocean Road initiatives, I take it that they have been submitted to the RDA and have been included for the first round of funding. Okay. Obviously there is a process now in train. Applications under the first round closed last month and we are hoping to have the announcements out on 1 July. Obviously there is a process to go through. It is an independent body that will have to make the judgment, because clearly there has been an oversubscription. What we are looking for—and it is interesting because it relates to what you are talking about later with the water initiative—are the initiatives that seek to do a number of things. They seek to leverage funding from the other sources of government so that we are making the dollars go further. We are looking for those initiatives that will actually benefit a wider area, that have the combination of economic and/or social, it does not have to be both, but we are looking at how they fit best with the strategy that the RDA develops. If we are to give substance to the RDA and say to it, 'We want you to develop the strategic vision,' we are also asking them for advice as to whether these projects fit within it, because that will help guide the independent panel.

As for the water initiative that Senator Farrell came over and talked about, these initiatives obviously are occurring around the country as communities seek to grapple with the combination of water security, environmental issues and the like. You have mentioned this leveraged funding and you say this proposal is worked up, and it should continue to be worked up. But one of the important things that I would suggest to his RDA through the member is that I do not want the RDAs just to look at the silo that is the Regional Development Australia Fund. It is true that it is worth $1 billion over the course of the next five years and it is true we are seeking to leverage off it. But what we are actively encouraging the RDAs to do is to join the dots. So I do not want them just looking at the silo that is regional development money; I want them to look at other initiatives, other programs that are available, and to see whether there are opportunities within those other programs. That is what I refer to as joining the dots. The RDAs get that message. The dots I want them to look at are not just Commonwealth programs; they are state government programs as well as local government. That is the leveraging argument as well. Senator Farrell has raised this issue. We have had discussions on it and we will be interested to see how the proposal develops.

Finally on the point of the NBN Co., we made it clear in terms of our commitment that we will not have laid fibre to the whole nation for 10 years. Clearly it is going to be a rolling exercise. I might say that a contract announced yesterday shows that the satellite aspect of the seven per cent has been brought forward by five years. So as the technology increases here we have the opportunity to truncate that timeline. I suspect that as we get better at this and more efficient at the laying we will be able to shorten the time span. But I would urge the regions not just to stick up their hand and say, 'My turn. They are getting it, why are they getting it?' I want the regions to really be creative in the way in which they say why they should be considered first. That means them looking at the applications that they can use for the NBN Co., working with local government to more efficiently lay the fibre so that you are not duplicating the trench digging and showing where the market is for take-up. They are the sorts of things the regions should be embracing and we have talked with them on a number of occasions about that.

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