Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the fact that suicide is a leading cause of death for Australians under the age of 44 and to the fact that it is estimated that every year as many as 50 people, coming from all over Australia, take their own lives by leaping to their deaths from the cliffs at the Gap at Watsons Bay in my electorate. I also refer the Prime Minister to the application by Woollahra Council for $2 million of funding to enable it to complete the construction of fencing, railing, helplines, lighting and other suicide prevention infrastructure at the Gap. I ask the Prime Minister why his government has now on two occasions refused to give financial support for this lifesaving infrastructure or whether this is just another example of his government’s neglect of mental illness and its tragic consequences.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This, I understand, is an infrastructure matter, the details of which I do not have. For the convenience of the House, I will ask the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government to respond to it and will happily add to the answer at the end.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government has introduced a Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program, which has two parts. I thank the member for Wentworth for his question. The member for Wentworth might like to indicate or agree that I have discussed with him privately the circumstances of this program. I will go through the facts of this application. There is one section whereby every council receives an allocation of funding for local priorities. Woollahra has received $340,000 through this component. That funded $248,000 for the installation of a CCTV system, which was opened by Senator Michael Forshaw on 4 March 2010, and $91,000 for the construction of 85 metres of steel mesh fencing and safety handrails, which is underway.

The second component of this program is for larger competitive projects. The facts are these. We announced the funding for this second round on 25 June 2009. We released the guidelines for it on 9 October 2009 after consultation with the Australian Council of Local Government Steering Committee, made up of local government representatives. Indeed, we had another meeting with the ACLG Steering Committee just this morning for the third round of this program. We opened the application process on 2 November 2009 in accordance with the agreed guidelines and in consultation with local government. Applications closed on 15 January 2010. Councils had 14 weeks to formulate their applications to make sure that they fitted the guidelines and to get the details right.

Woollahra Council submitted an application of $2.2 million to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. I will go through, as I have privately with the member for Wentworth, what that was for. The majority of the funding they sought was for roadworks on Military Road in Watsons Bay that had specifically, as the member knows, been ruled out as being eligible for this program. We have the Roads to Recovery Program for local government for roads. The infrastructure program specifically ruled out roadworks, but the application included upgrades to the bus terminus on Military Road, a raised pedestrian crossing, a traffic island with water-saving devices underneath, underground cabling, five directional signs, six water-sensitive urban design plant beds, 10 tourist interpretation signs—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is the point, I say to the Leader of the Opposition. As the member knows, this did not get to my desk; this was not a political decision. The department ruled the application ineligible. Unlike the way that you operated in government, with the Regional Partnerships program, we followed the guidelines.

According to their own costings, only $20,000 was for two Black Dog Institute signs, $30,000 was for two emergency telephones and $15,000 was for additional fencing. I understand from the Minister for Health and Ageing that her department has been in contact with Lifeline about paying for it through the appropriate fund. As I indicated to the member for Wentworth when I spoke to him in private, I was quite sympathetic with action when it came to this, but we had to have a discussion between the council and me about the appropriate program. The fact is the government was not asked for funding for CCTV in this application. We have already funded it at Gap Park, and it has been opened. We have also provided funding for safety fencing. The majority of the funding was for roadworks. So the department had no choice but to determine their application to be ineligible. And I make this point: over the last two years the Rudd government has provided nearly $3.7 million in untied funding to the Woollahra Municipal Council—funding that they can put to whatever priorities they determine to be appropriate.

It has been suggested by the local mayor—who is also running for preselection for the Liberal Party for Vaucluse at the moment—that this program was not successful because it was an application in Wentworth. In the electorate of Wentworth we have provided $2 million for the Waverley Park Pavilion, as the member for Wentworth knows because he was there with me when we announced that funding. In other safe Liberal seats, I was in the electorate of North Sydney in this round to announce the Coal Loader parkland development in North Sydney, and there was $2 million for the Drill Hall in Mosman in the electorate of Warringah, $2.3 million for ocean beach promenade upgrade in Manly, also in Warringah, and $4 million for Narrabeen Lagoon in the electorate of Mackellar.

This is not a partisan program. Mental health is a serious issue, and people should not distort the facts of this matter. I continue to make the offer to the member for Wentworth that if the mayor wants to actually have a serious discussion about appropriate government programs then we are there to assist. But what does not assist is the sort of distortion, frankly, that we have seen in the member’s local papers over the last few days.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.