Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ceduna is a town of about 4,000 in the far west of my electorate. It is predominantly a broadacre farming district but it also has other serious contributors to the economy. In particular, it produces the gypsum to make more than 80 per cent of the gyprock used in Australia annually, with more than 1.5 million tonnes shipped through the Thevenard port. Iluka exports around a quarter of a million tonnes of mineral sands a year from their Jacinth-Ambrosia project, also through the Port of Thevenard. Additionally, most of about 300,000 tonnes of grain a year go out through the port and 150,000 tonnes of salt.

It is a busy place, and on top of all this the Thevenard port always been the place for the local fishing industry to unload their catch. Unfortunately, though, with just one wharf, as the throughput of the port has increased so have the delays for fishermen wanting to unload their catch; they have been held up while waiting for space at the wharf.

The Ceduna council, in conjunction with Regional Development Australia Whyalla and Eyre Peninsula Inc., developed a plan to install a dedicated marine-unloading facility to alleviate these delays, which are having a material impact on the businesses. Following much hard work, they were excited that they had ticked all the boxes. They understood that the advisory panel established to prioritise RDA allocations for the minister had recommended the project for funding—an amount of $5.2 million for a total project cost of $8.8 million. It was in the bag—or so they thought. Then they learned that the minister had not approved their funding. What had happened? They knew not.

That was until the release of the Australian National Audit Office report into funding rounds 3 and 4 of the Regional Development Australia Fund last week. It found that the minister—the member for Ballarat—had overruled the recommendations of her own appointed committee. In fact, a quarter of the projects recommended, covering 48 per cent of the total expenditure of the program, the minister chose not to approve—including the Ceduna fish unloader. And guess what? Eighty per cent of the projects she chose not to fund were in coalition seats. And where did the money go?

Apparently it went into metropolitan seats like Fremantle in Western Australia—$10 million—a very regional seat; I am sure my friend, the member for O'Connor, would agree! The seat of McMahon in Sydney, where the shadow Treasurer sits—got $1.3 million. There was $7 million for a project that was not recommended in the seat of Wakefield in South Australia. Back in New South Wales there was $10 million to the seat of Charlton. These are all Labor seats and all with candidates in trouble as the election approached. So 80 per cent of the projects recommended for funding and subsequently cut came from coalition-held seats and 48 per cent of that funding went to projects not recommended by the minister's panel—the panel that she appointed.

It is interesting to note what has happened in Ceduna since that time, where the project we thought we had in the bag fell over. Last month, A Raptis & Sons, who have been long-term users and long-term supporters of the Thevenard port, advised that they would be withdrawing their operations from Ceduna. They advised the mayor, the Premier and the RDA and since that time they have been prevailed upon to stay a little longer to see if this fish unloader can be landed, as it were.

I would point out that A Raptis & Sons employ about 30 people in the Ceduna district. They spend $12 million annually—$12 million in a town of 4,000 people—and spend $57,000 on the local air service. That brings crews in, rotating them in and out. Rex Air runs a daily service into Ceduna and it would not be one of their great profit-making enterprises, let me tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The loss of this business to that airline could even threaten that long-term service. So these are serious ramifications, and all because a project that was approved for RDA funding was overruled by the minister.

The Ceduna community has commitments from another two trawlers at least that, should the project be landed—should the fish unloader be built—they would operate in the area. That would make four or possibly five. At this stage they have applications going back into the Building Stronger Regions Fund and I will be supporting those strongly. I hope the state government comes on board. This really has been a tawdry episode in pork-barrelling of the first order.