Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton has today questioned why the Federal Labor Government has stalled funding for regional grants programs this financial year.

The Labor Government is delaying the release of eligibility criteria and funding guidelines for the Growing Regions Program and Local Roads and Community Infrastructure (LRCI) Program according to Mr Coulton.

“The Minister for Transport has confirmed this week that she still hasn’t approved the funding guidelines, and I really question why that is,” Mr Coulton said.

“Rural and regional communities in the Parkes electorate rely on these programs and here we are 10 months after the election and five months after the Federal Budget without any funding.

“If money is not released this financial year it sets councils and local communities back, potentially affecting deliverables due to constantly increasing project costs. We cannot afford these delays.

“The Growing Regions Program was supposed to be Labor’s answer to the former Coalition Government’s Building Better Regions Fund, but it is yet to be established. The LRCI program is already well established and was a Coalition initiative which has been extremely popular, yet neither program has seen funding released.

“Councils in my electorate have been told how much money has been allocated to them through the LRCI program, yet they cannot access it until July this year.

“Gilgandra Shire Council has indicated that they will use the $878,444 Round 4 LRCI funding they have been allocated to seal problematic sections of the National Park Road, but they have to wait until next financial year before they can access this.

Mr Coulton said it’s disappointing that Labor seems to have put rural Australia on the backburner.

“The Minister for Transport and the Minister for Local Government need to get cracking, because it should not be taking so long to release the guidelines and enable access to regional funding,” Mr Coulton said.

“If the Labor Government is serious about looking after all Australians that includes people in the bush and those who live outside of capital cities. They need to take off their city blinkers and pay attention to the needs of our regions, and that means prioritising the funding programs these areas rely on.

“I call on the Government to release the regional funding guidelines as soon as possible so that projects can get underway in the Parkes electorate.”