HUNDREDS of millions of dollars could be doled out to regional councils under a Coalition plan to revive its controversial Regional Partnerships policy, which was dogged by allegations of rorting and pork-barrelling.
The North Queensland Register has learned that Coalition regional development spokesman Barnaby Joyce (pictured) has written to all local governments, suggesting it might be better to just give money to the regions rather than requiring them to compete for it.
Senator Joyce said Labor's process for awarding grants from its $1 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund was too bureaucratic, and the fact it delivered fewer but larger grants meant many worthy applicants missed out entirely.
"We're looking at going back to the process we had before ... getting more money in less amounts into more places and taking the bureaucracy away from it," the Nationals Senate leader said.
"We basically want to say, 'Here's the money; you do with it what you think you need to do with it; Canberra does not understand your area better than you do'."
His proposal comes amid Coalition divisions over whether to cut assistance to the car industry as part of a commitment to a more disciplined and transparent budget process.
The Coalition government allocated $410 million between 2003 and 2007 for regional partnerships, but Labor has promised $1b over four years, with future funds to be underwritten by the mining tax.
Under Labor's approach, the 55 Regional Development Australia (RDA) committees, made up of local leaders, decide which community infrastructure projects should be prioritised in their area.
An independent panel then advises Regional Development Minister Simon Crean on which of these should receive funding.
The regional funding policy is a key plank of the agreement Labor struck with independent MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott after the 2010 election.
Just days out from the 2007 election, the Australian National Audit Office embarrassed the then Coalition government by finding that its regional partnerships program failed to meet acceptable standards of public administration.
It noted that ministers often announced grants before an election that were not properly vetted and might have been made on political grounds, not on projects' merits.
Senator Joyce said that no-one liked to be accused of rorting or pork-barrelling, but such allegations might just be "par for that golf course" in the process of distributing funds to needy regional communities.
"When less than 10 percent of the best ideas that have come forward from regional Australia get accepted, the question has to be asked whether a competitive grants process is really the best option," he wrote to local governments," he said.
"Would it be better for us just to give the money directly to the regions or local governments?"
In the first round of funding distributed by Labor last year, there were 553 applications but 35 were successful.
Grants ranged up to $15m, though some were less than $1m. A total of $150m was distributed.
Many groups were frustrated at the time and effort spent preparing full grant applications to no avail.
In response, the government boosted the role of RDAs, requiring them to assess brief proposals for grants and decide which three in their region should submit full applications to the independent panel and minister.
Last week, the RDAs announced which projects would be considered for the second round of grants, worth $200m, sparking debate in local media about the merits of different proposals.
Mr Crean said the process was about "objectivity and proposals that stack up", and about supporting projects that could leverage funds from other sources.
"I would be more than happy to have it assessed by the auditor-general," he told the Register.
He said the RDA network played an important role in providing local input on matters as diverse as water reforms in the Murray-Darling Basin, the restructuring of the forestry industry in Tasmania and the effect of carbon pricing on the Latrobe Valley.
Mr Crean said the Coalition's Regional Partnerships program was a "rort-ridden pork barrel", which had favoured Coalition electorates.
"To make things worse, some of the Regional Partnerships projects shut up shop a few months after cashing the cheque and some didn't even exist," he said.
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