Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 3:24:11 to 3:28:52
The department explains the decision to sign grant agreements before final regulatory approvals to align with industry planting seasons and support plantation establishment.
Topics: Forestry, Grants administration, Agricultural productivity
Speakers: Guy Bursle, Matt Lowe, Hon Richard Colbeck, Unknown Speaker
So in response to that comment, it says it's tricky as it puts onus on the department to establish what consents are required and that they've been met and for uh for this to be considered further. It's not the department's responsibility to establish land tenure as as part of the grant loans. Isn't isn't isn't it the job to make sure that the conditions of the um upheld as part of the assessment process?
>> Yes, Senator and and I think we have the eligibility requirements are clearly set out in the guidelines. We along with the community grants hub uh undertook an assess an eligibility assessment process. Uh in this case uh in relation to land access and tenure uh they met the requirements uh those requirements are were subject to regulation.
>> How do they meet the requirements when
they the requirement was that they provide us a a declaration as to long-term access, which was that they had a contract for sale. Um and so while that contract was subject to regulatory approval, I think it it as I've already explained, there are other processes in the grant administration that uh control our visibility and the release of funding under the grant program. um that uh because what what the program it's not unusual I suppose for uh grants to come to us and say we will we're purchasing this land and we'd like to establish a plantation uh the funding uh requests for this program are very often driven by planting seasons. So an application will come at a point in time so that that applicant can then line up a winter planting season. >> And so I suppose uh we've sought to provide a level of flexibility at the point of application um so that an applicant isn't left out for a for a full uh 12 months because of planting seasons. I would talk to 18 months I suppose. Um, so there's a level of flexibility in terms of access to land to say I I'm interested in a grant. My project is subject to contract. Um, which is uh what what happened in this instance. Um, and then we have other controls through the grant uh contracting and grant administration process that mean that we have visibility over the release of uh funding um and the use of that funding.
If you'd signed the grant agreement on the 10th of July or the 9th of July, for example, rather than the 7th of May, I wouldn't necessarily have a problem because you had approval from FURB on the 7th on the 8th of July, but you didn't have approval from Ferb until the 8th of July and yet you've signed an agreement for the project on the 7th of May. I mean, how does that how how does that stack up,
>> Senator? a an agreement by which no funds would flow um until [snorts] such time as the project um that was being supported under the grand agreement um is in flight and >> is in flight um and and probably just another piece of context that I think um Mr. Berserel was was was um alluding to is um you probably be aware as I know you've got um a great deal of interest in in the plantation programs in general, but um in the early stages of the establishment of the program, what we were seeking to do was to balance what was um quite quite a long I guess kind of approval process um with the with supporting industry to get plantations underway. way. So, what we're trying to do with this program is to, I guess, make balanced assessments about how we support programs to get underway and minimize the approval process that we're the custodians of. Um and and we did receive feedback. Um um and I'm not saying that this particular judgment that we made was in relation to this, but I guess just to provide an overall context, we're trying to um ensure that there is a relatively speedy approval process from our end um to support these important projects to get underway. And so we do make balanced assessments about what information meets the elig eligibility criteria to enable those approvals to happen with the appropriate amount of rigor but also with the appropriate amount of elacrity.