2016-05-04
Ms DUNN My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. In April the government provided a $100 000 grant to the Ryan and McNulty timber mill in Benalla to expand its capacity to process native forest timbers, including mountain ash from the Central Highlands. Was the grant intended as a way to inflate the value of the company should any compensation arrangements be an outcome from the forest industry task force?
ANSWER
Ms PULFORD: I thank Ms Dunn for her question. I think the question is probably best directed to me in my capacity as Minister for Regional Development. It was a grant provided to the Benalla company from the $500 million Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund. The grant was for $100 000. I take the opportunity to thank Ms Symes for having represented me on the occasion of the announcement of this grant. A number of jobs will be created within this business, which is of course a terrific thing and something that I think all members of the house probably celebrate, or certainly would now that they are aware of it. Creating jobs in a community like Benalla, indeed in any community, is a very worthwhile thing. The Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund supports jobs growth in a range of industries and of course also community infrastructure of varying scale in communities right across regional Victoria. I think Ms Dunn is suggesting perhaps that the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund should have guidelines that prohibit supporting some types of industries that she does not like so much, but the guidelines make no distinction about different types of industries. Regional Development Victoria works closely with companies from an extraordinary breadth of industries in Victoria doing a remarkable range of things and works with companies to secure and support investments that will create jobs. That is the point of the fund. That is the point of the grant that was provided to the Benalla-based company. I certainly wish that company well in its future endeavours and congratulate it on its plans to increase the size of its workforce and to create jobs in Benalla.
Ms DUNN: I thank the minister for her answer. Can the minister advise why she is providing taxpayer funds to expand the processing capacity of a native timber mill that relies on supply from a forest ecosystem that is in collapse and clearly has issues in relation to supply around coupe swaps in which lives the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum, our state faunal emblem?
Ms PULFORD: I thank Ms Dunn for her further question on this matter. I think Ms Dunn might be well advised to familiarise herself with the way in which the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund operates and the way in which Regional Development Victoria works across the state, with communities across the state and with employers and companies seeking to grow and expand across the state. The objectives of the $500 million Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund are to make our regional towns and cities stronger, to support the diversification of their economies and to create jobs growth. Ryan and McNulty’s decision to expand has no direct engagement with questions of timber supply and timber supply contracts. It has been treated, in consideration of its grant application, in the way that any other organisation in Victoria seeking support through the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund would also be treated.