ALGA applauds Campbell's commitment to R2R2 state-based shares
12 July 2004
ALGA President, Councillor Mike Montgomery, today welcomed a commitment from Federal Roads Minister Ian Campbell to ensure local government in each state and territory gained a fair share of the $400m strategic funding component of the renewed Roads to Recovery program.
Speaking at ALGA's National Local Roads Congress in the Barossa Valley today, Senator Campbell acknowledged local government's concern about how the strategic component of the $1.2bn Roads to Recovery program will operate.
The strategic component will be part of the new program, which commences in July next year. It will be allocated to regional roads of strategic significance. Councils will submit regional projects, which will be assessed against guidelines currently being developed by the Commonwealth.
"State-based shares will give councils more confidence that projects from their jurisdictions will gain a fair share of the funding pool," Cr Montgomery said.
"We welcome this commitment from the Minister and look forward to working with him on the development of the guidelines over the next few weeks.
"ALGA and state local government associations were concerned that some jurisdictions may have got less than their share without a firm commitment to state-based shares.
"We also welcomed the Minister's comments on the important Black Spots road safety program. He said he would be 'flabbergasted' if the Government did not renew the program for a further four years."
In his address to the Congress, Cr Montgomery said that local government was delighted that the Government had renewed the Roads to Recovery program for a further four years. Roads to Recovery is of critical importance to Australia's 675 councils, providing desperately needed funding to address the massive backlog of local road maintenance work.
Cr Montgomery also welcomed Senator Campbell's commitment to convene a regular forum between himself, ALGA and state local government association presidents and state local government ministers. Senator Campbell said he would continue to put plenty of energy into getting a better deal for local government and ensuring it became an equal partner in the Australian Federation.
