Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Rounds 3 and 4, as I have indicated, were launched concurrently and are a comprehensive package to address the diverse priorities and needs of the regions. Round 3 provides small grants for projects located in small towns. Round 4 provides grants for strategic infrastructure projects. Each round has its own guidelines. RDA committees have considered all EOIs from across the region and selected up to five projects to proceed to full application for round 3. In round 3—and I am working my way systematically through all of these rounds because they are relevant to the question—440 EOIs were received, seeking more than $162 million in funding, and 216 EOIs, seeking $84.7 million in grant funding and investing $476 million in regional Australia, were selected to proceed to full application. In round 4, 478 applications were received. (Time expired)