By MARK COULTON, PARKES MP

Last week I was extremely disappointed to find out that the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) is cutting the funding to Indigenous service provider Regional Enterprise Development Institute (REDI.E).

REDI.E’s contract will be terminated at the end of October because it does not meet the criteria for an extension of its Community Development Program (CDP) service agreement.

I met with staff from Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney’s office and representatives from the Department for clarification on this decision last week and I was not satisfied with the explanation they provided, which is that the contract was terminated due to minor compliance issues.

I just cannot understand how the NIAA can justify this when it’s clear that REDI.E is making a positive difference in communities throughout Western NSW. This is going to create a significant gap in services, affecting the livelihoods of about one thousand Indigenous people in my electorate.

For a government that claims to be so supportive of Indigenous Australians, why would they cut the funding of an organisation that is actually helping to close the gap?

I spoke out about this in Parliament last week.

Questions over water issues

I took the opportunity in Parliament last week to further question Water Minister Tanya Plibersek about water buybacks and the Wilcannia weir, putting to her the concerns I have about water in the Parkes electorate.

I asked the Minister whether the water that has been over-recovered from the Macquarie and Gwydir valleys will be returned to the productive pool for those communities or whether it will be rolled into the 450 gigalitres of additional environmental water that is going to South Australia. I also questioned how much of that 450GL the Minister plans to purchase from our Northern Basin, because to get just one megalitre across the bor-der to South Australia, you’d need to purchase 16ML of water from the top end of my electorate.

Another issue that has been causing great angst in my electorate is the change to the design of the new Wilcannia weir, which means the water level will be one metre lower than originally planned. The new Wilcannia weir has been jointly funded by the Commonwealth and NSW governments. The change of the design has come from the NSW government, however I wanted to know whether the state has approached the Commonwealth asking for more funding to build the weir to the original height. And if so, how much have they asked for and would Minister Plibersek be prepared to support that project?

The Wilcannia weir will significantly improve the reliability of the water supply for the community which will in turn boost the town’s overall amenity, but only if it’s built to the original proposal.

Regional Telecommunications Review

Access to reliable telecommunications is essential to the growth and development of our regions. It’s also critical for the safety of our local communities and responding to emergencies and can sometimes be the difference between life and death in rural and remote Australia.

The 2024 Regional Telecommunications Review is currently underway and accepting submissions.

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