Budget 2022: Scramble for funds after Labor axes grants schemes

The Albanese government will spend $1bn on two new regional grants schemes as Labor pledges to crack down on rorts and waste.

Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Catherine King. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

When the small northwest NSW community of Bourke got together to scope out how best to help its children, many of whom are considered vulnerable, it decided to build a new hub for childcare and early intervention services.

Bourke and District Children’s Services applied in February for nearly $10m under the sixth round of the former Coalition government’s Building Better Regions Fund but was told on Monday the scheme had been scrapped.

“It’s really disappointing when we’ve done so much work to show why that project’s valuable and it’s really important,” the not-for-profit’s general manager, Prue Ritchie, said.

“Bourke doesn’t have enough childcare spaces. We have a waitlist of between 26 and 29 children. Some of those kids are at risk of significant harm, some of those children have two parents who work, some of those children need care because their parents are doing training or skills development programs. There is nowhere else for them to go.”

The Albanese says it will abolish the controversial Community Development Grants (CDG) program and reject round-six applications of the BBRF. Instead it will spend $1bn on two new regional grants schemes in Tuesday’s budget as it cracks down on “waste and rorts”.  The new schemes have been named the Growing Regions Program, targeted at regional councils and not-for-profit organis­ations, and the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program for larger-scale projects that “transform a place, to benefit communities in regional cities and wider rural and regional Australia”.

Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Catherine King said all contracted projects under the CDG scheme that were “properly accounted for” up to the economic outlook on April 20 would be honoured.

Another 82 projects dating back to 2016 that are yet to be contracted would have six months to finalise negotiations before the program ends.

“What you’ll also see is two new regional programs to make sure that going forward local councils have certainty of an ­annual, competitive, transparent grants process that they can apply for, but they know that it’s not the lottery that we saw under the previous government under the Building Better Regions Fund or the Community Development Grants Fund; that there’s actually transparency about decision-making for that funding,” Ms King said.

Bourke community leaders Tanya Jackson, Barry Hollman, Leonie Brown, Mark Coulton and Prue Ritchie stand among the debris from the childcare centre’s collapsed roof. Picture: Ian Cole / The Western Herald

While grant programs are being gutted, Ms King said the total spending on major infrastructure projects such as roads and railways would be similar to what was in the Morrison government’s final budget.

She said there would be few infrastructure projects axed altogether, although the funding for many would be delayed because of skills shortages and supply-chain issues.

There will be savings from dumping planned commuter carpark projects, including a $7.5m project in the western Sydney seat of Banks.

There are also projects that are set to be dumped in Victoria as the government prioritises a $2.2bn investment in the Suburban Rail Loop. This includes the $475m rail line to link two Monash University campuses and a $260m to remove the Glenferrie Rd level crossing in the seat of Kooyong.

Massive budget blowouts have also encouraged the government to dump upgrades of Napoleon Rd and Wellington Rd in the Melbourne seat of Aston.

There will be delays to a swag of major projects including the $824m Rockhampton Ring Rd, the $1.6bn Sunshine Coast rail line and a $100m upgrade to a road intersection in Sydney’s Homebush.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said confirmation that the grant programs were being scrapped “was a devastating blow to regional and rural communities”.

“Labor needs to tell our hard-working regional and rural communities why it’s putting its city mates before regional and rural Australia,” Mr Littleproud said.

Ms Ritchie, whose organisation is also waiting to hear if its application for a NSW government grant was successful, said members would regroup and “try and make something else work”.

She’s been told she can apply again shortly under the new Growing Regions Program.

Circumstances have only become more volatile after the childcare centre’s roof collapsed last month, forcing the childcare children and preschoolers to moved to buildings that are not big enough and without sufficient facilities.

An auditor general report into the $1.15bn BBRF found 65 per cent of approved infrastructure projects were not assessed on merit by the department.

Nationals-held electorates received about $100m in extra funding compared to if the money was handed out based on recommendations from the department.