Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 3:28:52 to 3:30:45
Senators question the involvement of Commonwealth entities as project partners and whether eligibility guidelines were strictly followed for the applicant trust.
Topics: Forestry, Grants administration, Integrity
Speakers: Hon Richard Colbeck, Matt Lowe
So what about doing a proper assessment of who the partners in the project are so that you don't get into the situation where you effectively double dipping into the project and having already ex um invested $69 million into the project. We're putting another $8.8 million in on top of that. I mean I I set up a trust. I do that in October. In November, I apply for the Um, and in February, I'm awarded $8.8 million through the minister, but there's no understanding of who the partners are in the project and 49 basically half of it is a commonwealth entity, which is not which doesn't qualify under the guidelines. Commonworth entities are are are specifically ruled out under the guidelines and yet there are 49% partner
>> Um I I don't have
>> and there's [clears throat] no scrutiny of that odd. It's >> we this is the entity.
>> Senator, I don't have anything further to add to Mr. Bil's comments in so far as that um what we are um focused on and um I guess you know driven by and governed by is the eligibility criteria under which the guidelines are established and the program is established.
>> But that's what I'm talking about. You >> I mean shouldn't the eligibility guidelines have an understanding of who is involved in the project and investing
Well, what we're principally concerned with is the the the who in relation to the applicant and the applicant was the the the trust um that we've that that is the project proponent.