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The release of the Auditor-Generals highly critical evaluation of the Regional Partnership Program (RPP) one week before the election did great damage to the coalition.

It concluded that the program was not meeting an â€Üacceptable level of public administration’. The Rudd Opposition said it was sheer pork barreling because most of the grants went to government-held seats.  

Then the fun began. Minister Vaile questioned the ethics of the Auditor-General for releasing the report during the caretaker period, and threatened retribution. The media had a field day, but didn’t delve deeply enough.

The real issue is the federal government’s role in regional development policy. Does it back off, or improve the delivery of economic and social problems to regional Australia? New PM Rudd has signaled the latter. 

I’d therefore like to provide a quick walk through the recent history of regional programs, to us map out some future scenarios.  

Growth Centres Program (Whitlam/Uren era) 

This was the Whitlam government’s foray into regional development. Tom Uren was the responsible Minister, and he set out to boost the development of regional cities by focusing on infrastructure and investment attraction. Places like Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst-Orange and Monarto (Murraylands, SA) were in the spotlight. Town planners came from everywhere to be part of this bold experiment, but planning was akin to Communism, and the flakiness of the Monarto concept was the death knell. 

With the demise of the Whitlam government, the incoming Liberal/Country Party took the view that regional development and government was the province of state governments, and things went very us map style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">  

The Regional Development Program (Keating/Howe) 

This program begat the Regional Development Program (RDP). It drew no major criticism, at least in respect of maladministration.

We are talking 1992-93.  Its birth was a rocky one. It had to overcome concerns within the dry parts of the bureaucracy the federal government had no role in the regions, and would raise undue expectations in the Bush.

But Brian Howe was Deputy PM us map wanted a regional program to balance his recently-won Better Cities Program ($500 million) within his new Department of Housing & Development (DHARD). The Kelty Report added further impetus, as did backbench support from MPs in regional seats – Barry Cunningham (Macmillan) and Gavan O’Connor (Corio) spring to mind.   

The problem was that the DHARD bureaucrats us map to formulate a program that wouldn’t bring back the ghost of Monarto. Enter Alan Evans who had been chief of staff to Treasurer Dawkins and is now the NRMA President. He had an innate feel of how to structure a watertight program. Steve Garlick, my fellow branch head, had a great knowledge of regional strategies and local government. Murray Geddes, with an absolute encyclopedic knowledge of regional Australia, was also in the frame.  

To cut a long story short, we devised a program whereby a regional development strategy had to be signed off by a regional economic development organisation (REDO) in each of 45 regions. Every initiative for federal support had to be consistent with the strategy and signed off by the REDO. We approached the troika (Treasury, Finance, PM’s Department) with this idea, and asked for $500 million on us map basis that the Better Cities Program had us map this amount. I was basically told to bugger off. My Departmental Head, Andrew Podger, then handed out some Bex tablets to his counterparts in the troika.  

Anyway we finished up with $150 million – we figured this was better than nothing, and we introduced the idea of cocktail funding to leverage funds from other parties.

Cocktails are now, and will continue to be, a common feature of federal regional programs. Local government please note that YOU are expected to put something on the table. 

The salient point about this era was that, to the best of my knowledge, Deputy PM Howe never once rejected a recommendation of the Department. His minder, Kay Meadows (later Mayor of Yarra Yarra) had a facilitative role, but there was no heavying of DHARD bureaucrats, except calls to hurry up.   

When the Howard Government assumed power in 1996, the RDP was killed off. This was a bolt of lightning to us, as well as the new Minister, John Sharpe. We were stitched up by the Department of Finance, which was looking for savings to fund election promises. It seized on a view that the RDP had been duplicating state expenditure. This was nonsense, but a certain SA Government official had been garnering support from other states and handing out the guns.  

The Regional Partnerships Program (Sharpe/Anderson/Vaile) 

For the next 5-6 years we had a grab bag of small programs - Regional Solutions, Sustainable Regions, Dairy RAP etc.

The RPP replaced these 2003, with some new funding and some the us map It came with around $75 million per year. Its aims were fine – funding community infrastructure projects, helping communities with adjustment difficulties, improving access to services, supporting planning exercises etc.  

However there were three problems.

First, the funding was a pittance in terms of the needs of regional Australia. Federal spending cutbacks were opening up deep schisms around this time.

Secondly, the criteria were too open-ended. Thirdly, the Area Consultative Committees were losing interest and getting cranky at the delays in funding decisions and lack of interest from senior Ministers. 

Senate report 

Things then began to smell – funds to dredge Tumby Creek, funds for the Atherton Hotel (with overtones of bikini babes), funds for cheese factories in direct competition with others. So the Senate Enquiry was launched. I actually made a submission to it, pointing out its lack of strategic focus. Anyway, the Senators concluded that the program should continue, with more checks and balances.

The Senate Committee did however observe that it was â€Üdeeply concerned by the intervention by ministerial offices in the departments assessment processes.’  Then the   

The lessons? 

1. There is an undoubted need for governments to fund strategically-significant regional projects, especially where there are clear community benefits. The RPP was under-funded. 

2. Politicians of all persuasions cannot help themselves. Once you waver from the Departments advice, you are a sitting duck.  

3. The only solution is to remove Ministers and their staffs from the process. Its simply not worth the slurs and innuendo. Brian Howe understood that.  

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