Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Again, I am talking about the reason that, when we came to government, we had to clean up the appalling job that those opposite, particularly the National Party, did when it came to regional grants program. So I don't make any apologies about us taking some time to actually build integrity into the regional grants program, because we had, under the Community Development Grants Program, billions and billions of dollars, frankly, pork-barrelled into National Party and Liberal Party seats across this country. We are taking our time with the Growing Regions Program. The guidelines are currently before all of the stakeholders to look at to ensure that we are using the best possible processes that we can, and the announcement about the opening of those applications will be done shortly.

Again I remind the House that the reason we have had to do this and take our time is the terrible job those opposite did when it came to the regional grants program. Frankly, when it comes to things like the Community Development Grants Program, like the Building Better Regions Fund, they had no integrity when it came to the distribution of those grants, and I'm looking forward to putting in place an important program to fund our regions properly, fairly and transparently—something those opposite were incapable of doing. It absolutely shows why not a single one of them should occupy these benches ever again when it comes to integrity when it comes to grants.

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