Senator Joyce says today that Labor's communityelection commitments are on shaky grounds. During Senate Estimates today, it became clear that some of the projects may not be able to satisfy the guidelines of the Community Infrastructure program.
"The promises of Labor members seem to be as shaky as the Prime Minister's promise to not introduce a carbon tax under agovernment she leads" said Senator Joyce today.
"Despite repeated questioning, the Department could give no guarantee that projects Labor said they would build, would be built.
"This is despite the Prime Minister saying last year in the House of Representatives that 'I do commit to keeping the promises at a local level that Labor and Labor candidates made at the last election’.”
In response to a question asked by Senator Joyce about funding under the Community Infrastructure Grants program Ms Beauchamp, Secretary of the Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government responded:
Ms Beauchamp: we will be looking at the specific projects to see that they do pass the test around the ethical and proper use of Government funds.
Senator Joyce: and if they don’t?
Ms Beauchamp: If they don’t, they won’t be funded.
On 20thOctober last year the Prime Minister stated, in response to a question from the Member Andrew Wilkie:
“I do commit to keeping the promises at a local level that Labor and Labor candidates made at the last election, including the promises we made in the electorate of Denison. The reason I am able to say that with confidence is that during the election campaign we had a proper process of costing, which means we understood the costs of the promises that we were making. We made proper provision for them and we made proper provision for them in a context where the budget is coming back to surplus in 2012-13 and where across the election campaign our promises were matched by offsetting savings. Consequently I can say yes to the member for Denison with a degree of confidence.”