MANDURAH SHAFTED BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, SAYS MAYOR

Mayor Creevey said the City did not accept that the pork barrelling excuse given in the Federal Budget statement for dumping the Regional Partnerships Program was significant enough to rob many local governments of funding for valid regional projects.

“Many local governments across Australia, including Mandurah, fully complied with the funding agreement criteria set by the Department of Transport and Regional Services and did so for legitimate regional growth or sustainability creation projects,” Mayor Creevey said.

“The City of Mandurah had two important projects, the Port Bouvard Surf Sports and Life Saving Club facilities which had $651,200 approved in August 2007 and the Meadow Springs Regional Open Space project which had $1.1 million funding approved in September last year.

“To say that the Government will only honour existing contracts and not those which had departmental approval and letters of confirmation reveals a blatant disregard for many Australian communities, especially when the justification given is worded “to ensure funds are allocated for legitimate local needs”.

“This is an extremely disappointing result for our community as we made sure we crossed all the ‘t”s and dotted all the “i”s for these projects.  We also followed due process with correspondence and phone calls to check again and again that our grant application documentation was done according to DOTARS criteria.

“We believe we do have contracts because of the funding approvals given, so for the Government to announce in the May Budget that it would be dishonouring previously approved projects to “offset various regional election commitments” is nothing short of a double standard.”

Mayor Creevey said she expected Federal local member, Gary Gray, to meet with the City to ensure that Mandurah was not left out or ignored for other vital community infrastructure projects.

“We are disgusted by the Australian Government’s decision to abandon the Regional Partnerships Program and to describe our projects as so-called “rorts” is dishonest and a convenient excuse.  It’s about time promises were honoured and local communities were treated with the respect they deserve.”

The City of Mandurah is a coastal rapid growth council south of Perth and one of the fastest growing regional local governments in Australia.

RELEASE ENDS

21 May 2008