Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to join the member for Fisher in congratulating the successful applicants of round 1 of the Building Better Regions Fund. In my electorate of Mayo, two applications were successful: $202,000 is going towards a sculpture trail on Kangaroo Island, and $255,000 has been allocated to the construction of a men's shed at Victor Harbor. I have previously spoken in this House about the Victor Harbor Men's Shed, and I reiterate my support for men's sheds right across Australia. They are integral community spaces, they are places where there's a great deal of support, mateship and, indeed, love for each other, and I believe they save lives.

When I visited the Victor Harbor Men's Shed last year, I was delighted to see men, young and old, working side by side sharing their skills together—although I must say it was quite a tight squeeze in the men's shed! Thanks to the grant funding they've received, the Victor Harbor Men's Shed will be able to relocate to larger premises. They were previously operating out of the Encounter Centre—a great resource for our community—but they only had one day a week. This move will allow them to be open every day and help foster stronger relationships throughout the community. An organisation such as this is exactly the reason the Building Better Regions Fund is so valuable to regional communities. Similarly, the construction of the Kangaroo Island sculpture trail will add another great drawcard to Kangaroo Island and it will be a great boost to our economy there. The trail will show the natural vegetation of the island, the local wildlife, and include large sculptured works created from natural materials. I greatly look forward to its completion and disembarking at Penneshaw and having a good look around myself.

The Building Better Regions Fund is a genuinely good initiative. Investment in our region is so important to enable communities to grow and thrive, and I strongly support the intention of the program. That is why I'm so frustrated at the rules regulating eligibility of access to the fund being based on mapping. I have spoken on this issue previously, but it's inconceivable to me that a township such as Woodside in my electorate, with a population of just 2,000, cannot access the fund while the Gold Coast, the sixth biggest city in Australia, can. Mount Barker, the major economic centre of the Adelaide Hills, cannot access the fund. This is a town projected to have a population of 44,000 in the next 20 years, and the district population will grow to 56,000 in the same period, yet we lack so many of the essential services that a town with such a population demands because we have been such a small regional community. For example, our swimming pool is not up to competition standard—it's still in yards and feet—and it leaks into the surrounding ground. The recently announced sports hub will allow more football and soccer competitions, and that is desperately needed in our community, but what we need is Mount Barker and surrounding areas again being part of the Building Better Regions Fund.

Meanwhile, the Gold Coast is gearing up to host the Commonwealth Games next year, and it has two professional sports teams and the facilities that come with it. It is a large economic centre that receives millions of dollars each year from tourists visiting the city. I don't think you will find many who are willing to say the Gold Coast is lacking in essential services and community infrastructure. Indeed, I think you will find very few people in Australia who consider the Gold Coast a region. The minister spoke to me about my concerns and she said at the end of round 1, in July this year, she would have a review of the boundaries. As yet I have heard nothing from the minister.

South Australia is at an impasse, with our manufacturing industry closing down and unemployment rising. We must look to the next opportunity and I believe that next opportunity for South Australia is in food production and agriculture. It always has been, we just never realised it. In the Adelaide Hills these industries are crying out for major infrastructure projects to allow them to best display their talents to the world. This is why it is so important that these areas, true regional areas that rely on primary production for their prosperity, are allocated into the Building Better Regions Fund. While it is tremendous that we congratulate those who were successful in round 1, I would urge the minister to review as quickly as possible how they have drawn the boundaries for the Building Better Regions Fund, because it seems ridiculous that small towns with no public transport, small towns where you are lucky if you have one or two stores and a thousand people, where the banks have closed and everything has gone, cannot access this fund. For us not to be included and for places such as the Gold Coast to be included makes a mockery of the term 'regions'.

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