Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I will go to that point in a moment, Senator Bernardi. But that is the normal process and that was not followed. Senator Bernardi has used quite the language of opposition. It suits him well. He has learnt it quickly. It is very easy to use very colourful language with flourish when you are in your position, Senator Bernardi. But the thing is that you have been told on a number of occasions why we are in this situation—why we are going through the proper process and why we are ensuring that due diligence is undertaken, unlike what the former government did in the infamous Regional Partnerships program. We are undertaking the process correctly, and Senator Bernardi simply does not want to listen. He is trying to run a story out there in the media and the legitimate answers to his questions do not suit his story so he prefers not to listen.

In total there are over 100 separate facilities projects across health and infrastructure. We are progressively working through the task of conducting some basic due diligence on each one. Progressively we are making formal, independent, public announcements when those due diligence processes have been completed. This is what Senator Bernardi refuses to understand. This is the way you spend taxpayers’ money wisely. This is what you need to do before you spend taxpayers’ money. You simply need to find out whether or not the project will be delivered. That is why you do due diligence. That was not done, and I have many examples of when it was not done, in Regional Partnerships. The process of negotiating and conducting a proper funding agreement with project proponents is an ongoing one. Senator Bernardi has raised a couple of specific examples, and I will give some information to the Senate on those.

In respect of facilities funding in Penrith there are two separate projects: one project is the Penrith stadium upgrade of $5 million and another is the Penrith Valley Regional Sports Centre upgrade of $250,000. I can confirm that both have received funding in the budget and, while a funding agreement has yet to be concluded for either, we do not envisage there being any impediments to the conclusion of funding agreements for each of these two Penrith projects in the future.