Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think the member for Bendigo—as much as I like her—has made a valiant effort to defend an appalling decision by this government. It doesn't matter how much the member for Bendigo tries to sugar-coat the decision by the government to not continue funding the Stronger Communities Programme. It is an appalling decision, and it's our communities that pay the price. As the member for Bendigo quite rightly pointed out, every electorate in this country was treated equally under the Stronger Communities Programme. The fact that she could get up here and have the gall to say that it was pork-barrelling in the lead-up to an election and to complain that the coalition government hadn't funded it in perpetuity just shows how little regard they have for our communities. It is a disgraceful decision, and our communities will pay the price. Our communities will pay the price through the loss of funding for small organisations right across our communities that benefited from these small capital grants.

I was proud of the coalition government when we introduced this program in the 2015-16 budget because we all know how much work our community organisations do each and every day to make our communities better places to live in. Many of them survive on the smell of an oily rag. Giving them the ability to get a little bit of money to help with a new piece of equipment et cetera to make their jobs easier and provide better services is what this fund was designed to do. In addition, the beauty of this program was that the application process and the expression of interest process was straightforward. Because many of these community organisations are run by volunteers, they don't have the skills, the time or the ability to write detailed funding applications. So the expression of interest process was straightforward and easy for them to complete and document. Then, as I'm sure was the case for many colleagues in this chamber, we had a community board that would go through those expressions of interest and make decisions on what was approved and funded.

As I look through the projects funded across my electorate since this became available, I see that funds went to a local motocross club for a new first-aid and parents room and to community centres to purchase new washing machines and dryers to provide laundry facilities for those in our community who are struggling. It's been an invaluable resource for the community, particularly now with the cost-of-living crisis, and it is a resource for those who are struggling with homelessness. There were also funds for the mini farm project that I went to see last week at Loganlea State High School. The charity converts underutilised spaces into urban farms to grow food for those in need. With support from many great sponsors across our community, they are delivering record amounts of food to our charities to provide free of charge to those in need. Those people are getting fresh vegetables from our urban farm. There were funds for our local school of arts to refurbish their facilities at Cedar Creek hall to improve access for the community; the Logan Make and Do Association, for purchasing some new lathes to build toys for those in the community, for Christmas presents et cetera; the Ormeau Progress Association, for renovations to their facilities; the Rotary Club of Beenleigh, for a maternity garden at Logan Hospital; the Phoenix Ensemble, for upgrading electrical systems in their theatre; and a range of other initiatives right around my community of Forde.

Without these small community-focused funding initiatives provided through the Stronger Communities Program, many of these grassroots organisations would go without. We've seen on the ground how successful and how important it is. I call on this Labor government, with now a $22 billion budget surplus, to show some heart and reinstate the stronger communities fund to provide support to our community organisations who do so much good work each and every day to make our communities a better place in which to live.

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