REGIONAL Australia Minister, Simon Crean, has hit back at claims the $1 billion Regional Development Australia Fund (RDAF) is being used to "flagrantly pork barrel" the electorates of rural Labor MPs and key Federal Independents.
The five-year program was launched in March this year, with Mr Crean and members of the 55 local Regional Development Australia (RDA) committees involved in funding applications saying the program would take regional funding out of the election cycle.
An independent assessment panel decides project funding based on the merit of their individual strategic plans and capacity to boost economic and community development in rural Australia.
The RDAF was an integral part of the Federal Government's $10 billion election commitment to the regions, through the deal struck last September with rural independents, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, during negotiations to form government.
Last week Rural Press revealed regional NSW had received about $30 million funding for nine projects in the RDAF’s first round of funding, with seven of those projects in Labor-held electorates.
The opposition cried foul, saying the government was using the fund to "flagrantly pork barrel" seats held by Labor MPs and the Independents.
Mr Crean contacted Rural Press to "set the record straight".
"I’ve lost count how many times I’ve defended investment in regional development and I’m doing so again now, backing the 35 projects funded in the $150 million first round of RDAF," he said.
Mr Crean said the projects had been driven from the ground up by regional communities, and each was assessed by an independent panel and leveraged other funding sources - to the total value of $418 million in the first round.
"The projects that got up were the projects that stacked up," he said.
Mr Crean said claims of pork barrelling from Queensland Nationals Senator, Barnaby Joyce, were inaccurate.
He said the Opposition’s Shadow Regional Development Minister, who "confuses his millions with billions", is "confused again".
Of the 35 projects funded in the RDAF first round, Mr Crean said 16 were in Labor seats, 16 in Liberal or National seats and three in Independent seats.
"Labor is the only Party committed to reaching out to people in regional Australia," he said.
"You see it in our $4.3 billion Budget investment in regional health, higher education, infrastructure and skills.
"You see it in our commitment to the National Broadband Network - with communities asking me when they can get it, not why they need it.
"Meantime, Mr Joyce - whose credibility rests on little more than his postcode - spends more time plotting a takeover of Tony Windsor’s seat of New England than offering up credible regional policies.
"He knows this is only round one of the RDAF program."
Mr Crean says a second round of funding for the RDAF will open next month and - subject to the passage of the Mineral Resource Rent Tax - there will be three more rounds after that.
He said the only thing standing in the way of the further three rounds is "Tony Abbott’s determination to say no to everything we put up, even where it benefits communities".
"Mr Joyce should urge his Leader to really support regional development," he said.
Mr Crean said with the national economy in transition, Labor’s commitment to the regions had never been more important.
He said the government wanted to ensure that each region in Australia’s patchwork economy was able to reach its full potential.
"This will not only diversify the economy, it will also lift productivity, and that’s good for our regions and good for the nation," he said.
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