Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

There is a difference between the Labor approach to partnering with regional communities and providing funds. The Labor Party want to shut down Regional Partnerships. Last year Mr Lindsay Tanner went on Sunday morning television and said that the Labor Party, if it got elected to government one day, would close down this program and a range of other programs to return savings to the budget. I wrote to his leader, Mr Beazley, and asked whether a project like the one in Rockingham, for example—where Regional Partnerships is helping, with the strong support of Councillor Phil Edman, to ensure that that project goes ahead—would be closed down. Mr Beazley wrote back and said, ‘No, that is one of the good ones. That is all right.’

Labor chooses to attack projects like Tumbi Creek where the local community is trying to put in a long-term solution to the problem of the silting up of the mouth of the estuary. They are going through a proper process of calling for tenders, and of course you have to go through a proper process to ensure that the outcomes—