ABC Statewide Victoria with Jane Nield

JANE NIELD: And it is Jane Nield with you on ABC Statewide Drive, Victoria. Well, the cynics among us might take news of big investments into infrastructure around the state and indeed the country as a sign that a federal election is in the air today. Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King was out and about around Victoria, announcing a raft of funding from the Albanese government's growing regions programme Minister King joins us now. I hope you had a wonderful festive season, Catherine. 

CATHERINE KING: I had a lovely time. I actually drove from Ballarat to Adelaide, which was a fine thing to do for the summer.

JANE NIELD: We actually spoke last time you and I caught up Catherine King about the pothole situation. You always hear that it's better over the border. Is there any truth in that? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, I think that, you know, the road was okay. There's obviously been we had the 2022 year which had significant weather. And so there are patches all over the, you know, both in Vic and in South Australia that were difficult. But one of the things as Infrastructure Minister, I was really shocked to learn when I came to office was that the previous government had actually frozen the road maintenance money that went to the states and territories, which effectively meant that it wasn't spreading as far as it used to. So, one of the things I've done with the new agreement the Commonwealth's got with states and territories is start indexing that money again. And then I backdated it from 2013 so that there's more money going to the states now for road maintenance. And I think that was a really short-sighted thing that the previous government did was to freeze that maintenance funding, and hopefully they never do it again. 

JANE NIELD: So that money is flowing. So, we should see a vast improvement relatively soon? 

CATHERINE KING: Yeah. Well certainly I know, you know here in Victoria they've got their billion dollar program as well. And then maintenance money is on top of that. And that's for the National Highway network. So important that keeps up with, you know, the demand that we have. And we know that we've got more and more heavy vehicles going on these roads. So the thought that a federal government, the previous government would actually literally cut the road maintenance funding seems a bit crazy to me, but we've now fixed that. 

JANE NIELD: We could talk roads all day because I know the lines will go crazy. Catherine King but it is good. Maybe all politicians should be forced to do road trips interstate like you did to Adelaide, to get a real feel on what's happening on the roads. 

Catherine King I did want to ask you, though, about this raft of funding announcements that you have been spruiking today. Look, are we cynical to think that suddenly these announcements come whilst there is the sniff of a federal election? These are actually projects, from what I understand, Catherine, that have been in the works for some time. 

CATHERINE KING: This is the second round of the Growing Regions program and we're announcing them as quickly as we possibly could. The department undertook the assessments late last year. They came to me just before Christmas and I've signed off on those, and now we're making the announcements at the earliest opportunity I can get to each place, and we're doing that on a state by state basis. It's us getting on with the business, really, of government. It's no surprise there is an election this year. But these are grants that are part of the regular business of government, and we've spent quite a lot of time trying to clean up these grants programs make sure that they're fair, they're competitive, they're merits based. We've got a good transparent assessment process for these. And, you know, we're really just making the announcements for Victoria today, which was a really great set of projects across the state. 

JANE NIELD: I actually spent a bit of time in a very safe federal seat over the Christmas holidays, Catherine King and people would sort of say, oh, they never take any notice of us here because we're a safe seat. No one is offering big money to sweeten up a deal ahead of an election. But there are some very safe seats where funding has actually taken place. So do you think that is a very cynical approach to take to these projects, that they would only ever go where there was political gain to be had? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, I'm not surprised. When we saw from the previous government the sort of colour coded spreadsheets, sports rorts, all of that and the way in which grants were. And I know my own electorate, you know, we often did miss out on grants. And I think, you know, as I said, you know, at the time, there were often councils who just stopped applying, basically because they didn't think that they'd have any opportunity. This time around certainly we've been at pains, so I've got a couple of things we've done very differently. The first is obviously the grant guidelines. So, you know, we've been very transparent about, you know, what is eligible, what's not eligible, what we're looking for. I've then set up a multi-party panel that undertakes, so business grants hub does the first assessment of the grants. It then goes to a panel that has got members of the Liberal Party members of independents, the Labor Party and the National Party on it. They have a look and they make recommendations to my department about what projects should go forward. And my department then undertakes, a further assessment of those and makes recommendations to me for funding. And I've, on the whole, accepted the recommendations exactly on the list of merits. I get them all ranked of what's come before me. 

JANE NIELD: Now on the top of the list Catherine King, who I am speaking to on Statewide Drive this afternoon is the Ballarat Project, the Eastwood Leisure Complex redevelopment. We're talking over $8 million of federal funding, the Commonwealth funding here. What's this going to do for the local community? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, the first thing I'd say is one of the other things I've done with the process is recuse myself if there's anything in my own electorate. So I haven't made the decision about this funding. So that's the first thing I'd say. But this in our community. So the projects we've funded, there's over eight projects worth about $25 million, and they're all really different. But the thing that really threads them together is that they're about the way in which community uses spaces. And so in my community, the Eastwood Leisure Centre, it's basically a conglomerate of 1940s and 1960s 70s 80s buildings that have just sort of grown over time. There's about 1200 people who use the facility, come through the facility each week doing a range of things, whether it's from Lego Club to U3A, learning languages and meditation, to the Wildcats Basketballers, to Kelly Sports and school holiday programmes And it's a pretty tired old facility. So the council applied to put, it's putting in almost half, over half the money to just basically knock the facility down and redevelop it. And the basketball stadium will stay, but get a refurb so that it can be used by even more groups. And when you look at the projects overall, from whether it's in Koroit, which is their township renewal project, again about trying to make spaces more friendly for people to use, be able to get more, attract not just visitors, but people who live there, really being able to use spaces as best they can. You've got Porepunkah, they've got a community disaster refuge there and a multi-use clubhouse. We know Porepunkah is an area up near bright that is prone to bushfires, and so making sure that there is somewhere there for the Porepunkah community to be able to gather and go and work together in terms of disasters. We've got things like in Horsham, the City Oval precinct, their redevelopment there. So again, sport and the thing that ties all of those together with community is really, you know, these are the places where, you know, kids learn teamwork, they learn to get along with each other. They learn to resolve and settle disputes. It's where parents get a chance to be part of neighbourhoods and communities, and that they're really important for keeping, you know, really good social cohesion in our community. 

JANE NIELD: And Catherine, as we spoke to people, like you said, in the wake of fires and floods, these community hubs become such an important place of support and perhaps the first place that someone goes in a disaster. Has there been sort of an eye to maybe making sure that they can go off grid solar panels, batteries? Because we did hear from people saying it was great. We all went to the Oval, but there was no power, so it was sort of difficult. 

CATHERINE KING: It's sort of mixed. I mean, some applications will have that. So, I mean, there also has been a big grants program the Commonwealth has put forward that goes directly to local councils for these sort of facilities to bring them, you know, solar panels and batteries as well. And so that money has been rolling out through Chris Bowen's portfolio. But of course, there's also been the Disaster Recovery and Resilience Fund, $200 million that happens each year. And so, again, you're seeing quite a lot of investment being made in developing these facilities up and trying to make sure that we're building resilience into them as we go.

JANE NIELD: My guest is Catherine King on Statewide Drive Victoria, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. We are going to hear in a moment the story of a resident who was near the Gertie's fire who escaped. Raf Epstein spoke to him this morning. But a really important tale of knowing your bushfire survival plan and having a plan in a disaster. Catherine King, before I let you go, we've watched that horrific coverage of the LA fires where places burnt that you never would have thought would be a bushfire risk or a wildfire risk in the states. As an infrastructure minister, do you look on to coverage of the LA fires and go, wow, there were some challenges there. You know, the power went out. There wasn't enough water to fight the fires. Is there lessons to be learned for us from an infrastructure perspective? 

CATHERINE KING: Well, I think there's always lessons to be learned. I think Australia, you know, unfortunately we are very well practised when it does come to bushfires. And I remember very distinctly, you know, when you think of the Canberra fires in particular, they were areas where we would never have thought that would have that sort of fire risk. We see increasingly, you know, the urbanisation of forested areas that were former forest or farmland and what that means. And it's really important when communities are in those that you do, you know, recognise this is the area I live in. Learn about that. I have a very firm view, I think, leave, leave, leave is my absolute is what I would do. Having been a CFA volunteer, I know how hard it is to get, you know, trucks and people on the ground to every single property. It's just not possible. And you've got to defend as best you can. But also, from an infrastructure point of view, it has been why, you know, for example, as part of my portfolio, we've got this Housing Support Program, we’ll announce some of the projects out of that. We announced some Prime Minister in fact announced some projects in New South Wales. And so for example, in Kempsey, we're putting investments into really big new sewerage and water facilities there. So that allows the council to then get ahead of demand to build the houses. And so that's really important from a planning perspective. We want to build all these new houses, and I think we need to be doing a lot more infill. But we also need to make sure the infrastructure keeps up and we're trying to do our bit as best we can alongside state and local government. 

JANE NIELD: Yeah, and hopefully that's not just so the toilet flushes and you can have a shower. But if those new communities did face a disaster like fires that there would be that extra load there I guess. 

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's really important. And I think making sure that as part of the, you know, the state planning those systems very much are in place. And I know that the water authorities do look very closely at that when there's any planning of new housing developments in the state. 

JANE NIELD: Well, Catherine King, it's going to be an interesting year. Of course, your role as local government minister, I'm sure, will cross over the federal election, the push and pull between state funding and federal funding. So I'm sure we'll be talking to you quite a lot here on Statewide Drive this year.