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

I know that the member for Page's did not get lost—she was a very strong advocate—nor did those of other members at the table. But it is important that we understand the significant investment in this. The $150 million that we put out in the first round actually leveraged almost three times that amount in terms of other investments. I think the message has got through about the importance of partnership and the leveraging of funding from the other levels of government—state and federal—from not-for-profit organisations or the private sector. When we see the coming announcements I think we will see that message has been picked up in important ways.

Importantly, if you look at the mix that was in the first round you will see there was an important commitment to those initiatives that supported not only economic development and economic diversification but also social diversification—the social needs of communities and the livability of communities. That is terribly important. We will be announcing the rounds over the coming weeks. We also put another $50 million into that round and $250 million will be in this round.

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