Growing stronger regions across the nation

 REGIONAL Development Australia (RDA) will greatly benefit from new appointments to each of its committees. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss said the three-year appointments will provide leadership to RDA organisations to develop a model where all three tiers of government work together. “The RDA committees can play a…

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Training Complaints Hotline

 Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton has said that vocational education and training (VET) students now have a complaints hotline to bring rogue training providers to the attention of regulators. “Our Government is taking firm action to crack down on unscrupulous and misleading behaviour by some training providers and brokers, and this one-stop-shop hotline will…

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Rogue Operators targeted with new regulations

 Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton, has said that new regulations introduced by the Federal Government and effective from 1 January 2015 are targeted at rogue operators within the training sector. Mr Coulton said that there had been cases within the Electorate where training brokers had employed unscrupulous practices to sign prospective students up. “Most…

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MUSIC AND THEATRE TAKE TO REGIONAL STAGES

 Minister for the Arts, Senator the Hon George Brandis QC, has announced over $2 million in funding to bring music, theatre and other arts experiences to regional and remote Australians. Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton, welcomed the Australian Government’s funding for performance arts to tour in regional Australia. “$340,783 will be provided to Circus…

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Rural R&D round one funding closing soon

 The application period for the first round of the Australian Government’s $100 million Rural Research and Development (R&D) for Profit grants programme is now open. The application period closes on 15 December. Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton encouraged local industry, researchers and private organisations to think creatively to develop innovative and ongoing collaborations that…

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Competitive Selection Process Underway to Fix Mobile Black Spots in the Parkes Electorate

 Mobile black spots in the Parkes Electorate will be eligible for funding proposals under the Abbott Government’s $100 million Mobile Black Spot Programme. The programme today reached a key milestone with the start of the formal competitive selection process to determine the location of new mobile phone base stations in regional and remote Australia. “The…

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