Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, we've heard a lot in the House this week about the Building Better Regions Fund. I'm here to say that I am very disappointed in the announcement that was made just last week about who the winners, the recipients of the fund, were. My electorate, again, has missed out. Yes, we did receive about $40,000—$20,000 for a leadership program and another $20,000 for food-fossickers event. That is welcomed, but it wasn't the billions that the Prime Minister has been boasting about, and it wasn't the millions that many other electorates have received.

This isn't the first time my electorate has missed out. The City of Greater Bendigo put forward the Bendigo Airport terminal upgrade in three previous rounds and was not successful. We thought we had a chance this time. The focus was tourism. You can't get more tourism focused than an upgrade of an airport terminal. The state government is on board. The local government is on board. Qantas is on board and wants to bring more flights to Bendigo. Yet this government, yet again, has not prioritised this project.

In fact, 72.7 per cent of this round of BBR funding has gone to Liberal-National government electorates. Maybe it needs to be renamed the 'Building Better Rorts Fund', because that's what we're seeing. Funding is only going to their electorates, not all regional electorates. I urge the government to reconsider and to prioritise all the regions, not just their own. (Time expired)

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