Chapter 4 - Outcomes for regional Australia:
a showcase of RPP and SRP projects
4.1
As noted previously, the Government Senators of this
Committee are concerned that the majority report reflects predetermined,
politically motivated conclusions. The partisan nature of this inquiry is
demonstrated by the case studies to the report. The majority report has
focussed in detail on only six projects, where the ALP members believe they can
score some political 'points'
by amplifying perceived faults and minor administrative issues. The majority
report has bypassed the overwhelming body of evidence relating to the Regional
Partnerships and Sustainable Regions programs, that is, the hundreds of
successful projects delivering real outcomes to communities all over Australia.
4.2
The Government Senators cannot let this report stand
without providing some balance to the evidence presented. Below we canvass just
some of the highly successful projects delivered by the Australian Government,
in partnership with state and local governments and the community, through the
RP and SR programs.[864]
New South
Wales
4.3
In New South Wales
the Campbelltown City Council, through the assistance of a SRP grant will
establish a regional cultural precinct adjoining the Bicentennial
Art Gallery,
including a 2000 capacity amphitheatre, water features and terrace garden.
Another good example of the projects delivered through SRP is the Centre for
Sustainable Living. This project, developed by the Macarthur Regional
Organisation of Councils, will establish a world class educational facility and
a model for the promotion of suitable technology and practices for homes, urban
precincts and businesses.
4.4
In Holbrook RPP funding will enable the Greater Hume
Shire Council to develop Holbrook Park
into a major tourism centre by co-locating the visitor centre with the
submarine and updating the interpretive centre. Development of the site will
create a premier roadside stop, with flow on tourism benefits to the community
including for other local attractions, facilities and small businesses.
4.5
At Port Macquarie RPP funding will assist the Port
Macquarie Hospital Lodge Association to construct seven, one bedroom
motel-style units, a laundry and storeroom that will be used by the families of
patients using the radiotherapy facility at the Port
Macquarie Base Hospital.
On the NSW South
Coast, RPP funding will assist the
establishment of an Australian Ultrasound Training Centre of excellence in
Nowra, to provide broad-based training in sonographic skills.
Victoria
4.6
In Victoria
the SRP has provided funding for numerous worthwhile projects. At Lakes
Entrance SRP funding is helping the RMIT
University scallop hatchery and
research facility to investigate reseeding offshore scallop beds and
establishment of aquaculture systems for scallops. In East Gippsland SRP
funding is enabling a consortium of farmers located on the Red Gum Plains to
work with the CSIRO on research and development to produce crops that are
adaptable to the variable climate of Gippsland.
4.7
In Ballarat, RPP funding was approved for the 'So you
want to build bridges project'. This project is targeted at unemployed youth
and older-age men and will address building, construction and metal fabrication
skill shortages in the Ballarat region by establishing an engineering and building
workshop in a disused shed.
4.8
In Latrobe, RPP funding has been approved to establish
an organisation, Green PC Gippsland, who will receive and remodel donated
second-hand personal computers for sale on a not for profit basis to identified
low income and disadvantaged households in Gippsland.
4.9
The Mitchell Shire Council, with the assistance of RPP
funding, is able to replace the bowling green
at Kilmore Bowling Club with a synthetic bowling surface, providing a better
facility for the Kilmore community. In Rutherglen, the Indigo Shire Council,
with the assistance of RPP, will be able to direct electronic marketing,
advertising and e-commerce functions for a wide range of Rutherglen regional
businesses, particularly wine producers and tourism operators.
4.10
The strengths of the partnerships program are evident
in the RP grant for the Regional Women in Business Network project. This
project involves one metropolitan and one rural council and combines Australian,
State and Local government funding.[865]
In this project RPP funding will assist the Cardinia and Casey Councils to
establish a regional women in business network. The network will provide a
forum for the attainment of business and professional goals, professional and
business development, and the exploration of various networking models both
locally and nationally for raising the profile of local businesswomen.
Queensland
4.11
Among the successful RPP projects delivering outcomes
to communities in Queensland is
an important project focussing on water safety for children. RP funding assists
Laurie Lawrence Swimming Enterprises at Currumbin to present the Kids Alive
Do the Five national tour targeting three to ten year olds. The show includes
water safety messages which are designed to reduce the number of deaths and
long-term injuries doe to water misadventure.
4.12
In another example of the strong projects supported by
RPP funding, a grant was approved to Self Help Queensland Inc to develop and
publish a comprehensive Directory of self help and support groups targeted at
primary health care providers for the Greater Brisbane area, as well as the
wider Queensland community.
4.13
In Redcliffe RPP funding is supporting a strategic
review of tourism accommodation. The approved RP grant is to enable Redcliffe
City Council to develop a report analysing accommodation demands, visitor
numbers and needs, market supply, a current accommodation audit and future
needs analysis. This information will then be used to develop an accommodation
strategy for Redcliffe City,
which will be used to prioritise planning and funding for accommodation related
activity and to attract private sector investment and development.
4.14
In North Queensland RPP funding will assist the
Burdekin Community Association to construct a purpose designed building to hold
exercise, health and lifestyle education programs, designed to manage and
reduce chronic heart disease, diabetes, obesity and arthritis in the Burdekin
district.
South
Australia
4.15
Among the successful projects in South
Australia approved for funding under the SR program
is an important project for the cities of Playford and Salisbury.
This project, the Adams Creek/Edinburgh Parks flood mitigation and stormwater
re-use scheme, will construct an Aquifer Storage and recovery system that will
manage flood waters across a major industrial precinct and allow for the reuse
of water by the community and by industry, reducing reliance on the River
Murray.
4.16
Like the Sustainable Regions Program, the Regional
Partnerships Program is delivering important outcomes for communities in South
Australia. Like many areas in Australia,
South Australia has an ageing
population. An RPP grant to the Northern Adelaide Business Enterprise Centre
Inc will assess the needs of the region's ageing population and examine the
barriers to employment in the region's aged care industry.
4.17
RPP also delivers outcomes for young people in the
community. An RPP grant to the City of Playford
is to assist with the construction of a 'Rage Cage', an open-air multi-purpose
sporting facility that will house a number of ball sports played simultaneously
and will include a climbing wall as well as ramps for skateboards and bikes.
Western
Australia
4.18
The Committee received evidence on a number of the
important projects occurring in the Pilbara region with the support of RPP
funding. For example, at a public hearing the Committee heard from Ms
Fran Haintz,
Manager and Mr Bruce
Thomas, Chairman of the Wangka Maya Pilbara
Aboriginal Language Centre. Wangka Maya works with over 30 different aboriginal
languages in the Pilbara region, both to preserve a record of languages no
longer spoken or endangered and to preserve, strengthen and encourage those
languages currently in use. As well as teaching the three main Pilbara
languages, Martu, Injibarndi and Nyangamarta, in schools and TAFE Wangka Maya
also provides regional interpreters, conducts cultural awareness raising
courses and generally promotes the Indigenous people in the region.[866] Ms
Hainz told the Committee about the community
support for Wangka Maya:
Wangka Maya is a strong place. It helps people to remain strong.
Language goes hand in hand with culture and the land. Without language and
culture, people are not strong and they do not remain strong. That is why we
enjoy so much support from Aboriginal people. What we do is truly valued by the
people of the region.[867]
4.19
The Centre has outgrown its current office space and
with the help of RPP funding is establishing a purpose built language centre in
which to base its important work.
4.20
In Bunbury the Committee visited the In Town Centre
(also known as the Shoestring Caf) and saw first hand the wonderful service
provided by Mrs Geraldine
Webster and her group of committed
volunteers. The Shoestring Caf provides meals and a network of support to
homeless people and those needing a hand up. RPP funding helped secure and fit
out a new lunch centre:
The new kitchen fit-out has enabled us to work with a properly
equipped kitchen. We now meed all the health requirements and at long last we
actually have a cooker, which we did not have in the old building, so we can
provide more varied and healthy meals to the homeless and disadvantaged members
of our community.[868]
4.21
Mrs Webster
told the Committee about the benefits of the partnership model of RPP:
Above all, I would like to say thank you to the federal
government and congratulate them on setting an example by working together with
state and local governments, Lotterywest and members of the community to
provide a solution to a local problem. It has been a true partnership to
prevent an agency for the homeless in fact becoming homeless.[869]
4.22
The Committee visited the Harvey
Beef abattoir at Harvey
and heard from the human resources manager, trainers and inmates about the exceptional
RPP funded project operating there. In a carefully organised and monitored
program, selected minimum security prisoners from Karnet prison came in to the
abattoir every day to participate in trade certificate training. The Committee
heard that the prisoners finished their sentences qualified in specialised
trades, with offers of employment at the abattoir earning up to $80,000 per
annum. The benefits of the program were obvious – not only the direct outcomes
for inmates on the program and the increased pool of appropriately qualified,
job-ready workers, but also the benefits to the general community through
reduced recidivism.
Tasmania
4.23
In Tasmania
the Committee received evidence about Links Golf Tasmania Pty Ltd's first class
golf course at Barnbougle Dunes. The initial construction of the golf links and
infrastructure was the result of grants and investment from local government,
state government and the private sector. RPP funding was provided to expand the
Barnbougle Dunes Golf Links from a golf facility to a public tourism facility by
constructing a kitchen, public dining and function centre as well as wilderness
accommodation villas. Mr Ramsay,
Director, explained that the resulting jobs growth in the local community had
exceeded expectations and that there had also been environmental benefits for
the site:
If we received the funding for the full-service dining and
function centre the breakdown of full-time employees was to be a minimum of 26
in the low season, which is what we are in right now, up to 38 in the high
season. We have in excess of 26 right now and we certainly had more than 40
employees pretty much from January through to the end of March and the
beginning of April. We delivered very much on
employment.
We ended up building more cottages than we had included in the
application. Instead of building the 15 that we provided for, we have ended up
building 17. Another big factor was the environment. We have recently received
a big tick from the Worldwide Fund for Nature that the golf course has
delivered a range of considerable environmental benefits around the site, which
was a very degraded coastal dune system.[870]
4.24
Casaveen Knitwear in Oatlands provides another example
of RPP funding helping to expand an existing business into a tourism enterprise
with benefits to the broader community. Casaveen knitwear is made from premium merino
wool produced by the McShane family in the midlands of Tasmania.
With the help of RPP funding, Casaveen was able to diversify into heritage
tourism, with the development of an interpretation centre, tours of the factory
and heritage buildings and the opening of a caf to showcase Tasmania's
fine food and wine.
4.25
The Committee received evidence of the impact that the
closure of the Simplot vegetable processing factory at Scottsdale
had on the local community.[871] An RPP
grant was made to the Dorset Economic Development Group to assist the local
community in negotiations for a community support package and to help implement
a strategic plan for the region. This funding was important in assisting the
community to adjust to the impact of the closure or a major employer in the
region.
4.26
Another excellent example of the RP program supporting
tourism in Tasmania is the grant
to the Northern Midlands Council for it 'Branding Cressy' project. This project
helps identify Cressy as the 'gateway to Trout Fishing Paradise' through
restoration of the town's streetscape.
4.27
An RPP grant to the Volunteer Ambulance Officers
Association of Tasmania provides further evidence of the important projects
being funded by RPP in Tasmania.
This grant has assisted with the purchase of a mannequin designed specifically
as a learning tool for emergency first aid and medical training and will
enhance the training of volunteer ambulance officers who attend emergencies in
remote localities stretching from Zeehan to Smithton.
4.28
An artificial dive reef, to be created off Maria Island
in Tasmania by scuttling the former coastal trade ship the Troy D, is another
project only possible with the support of federal funding. In a submission to
the inquiry the Tasmanian Orford/Triabunna Region Chamber of Commerce outlined
some of the benefits of the dive wreck project, including social, environmental
and economic outcomes.[872] These
outcomes include boosting tourism for the region, creating new business and job
diversity, extending the marine park, replenishing fish stocks and providing an
opportunity for academic research and marine biology education.
Northern
Territory and Australian
Capital Territory
4.29
In the Northern Territory RPP funding is helping to
provide important community services and infrastructure and to expand tourism
opportunities. For example, the Tiwi Islands Training and Employment Board Pty
Ltd has been funded under RPP for the fit-out of a training centre for
vocational training in administration, computing, finance, local government and
other allied occupations.
4.30
In Alice Springs RPP
funding is helping the Central Australian Regional Development Committee to
establish a head office for the Desert Knowledge Business Centre. The important
work of this centre will focus on the sustainable future of Australia's
inland desert and will support the development of thriving desert knowledge
economies in Central Australia.
4.31
The Regional Indigenous Music Community Partnership
project in Alice Springs
is about increasing access to the music industry for indigenous communities and
preserving and showcasing indigenous language and culture. RPP funding to this
project will help provide for pre-production workshops and the production of a
music CD and music clip for five indigenous communities in the Northern
Territory and the production of a worldwide music CD
and clip. The project will lead to preservation and an increased appreciation
and recognition by mainstream society of indigenous language and culture.
4.32
In the ACT, RPP funding is being used by Hockey ACT to
upgrade and expand the National Hockey Centre. This upgrade will enable the
Centre to host international major matches and tournaments, including the
prestigious Women's Champions Trophy Tournament in November 2005.[873]
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