What’s in a name?
That’s the logo of the Federal Government’s Area Consultative Committees (ACC). Not very impressive, is it? And you couldn’t blame anyone for wanting to change it. However, at what cost should it be changed?
Regional Development Minister Anthony Albanese announced just before Easter that ACCs would be replaced by a similar organisation called Regional Development Australia (RDA).
I would link to the media release, but it’s not available on the Minister’s web site. I just know he gave a copy to the ACCs because a member told me. I work at a newspaper, but I never saw one. I only picked up the story thanks to Australian Associated Press (AAP).
Frankly I’ve never understood what ACCs actually do. The official blurb says:
“To guide its local-level activities, each ACC brings community stakeholders together to identify opportunities, priorities and growth strategies for the region. This community consultation enables each ACC to develop a three-year Strategic Regional Plan for its region.”
They were established by the previous Labor Government and continued under Howard, who made them responsible for giving advice on the Regional Partnerships program.
We all know the Coalition Government manipulated that advice for its own political gain and that Labor will most certainly do the same now it’s won office.
The ACC, or RDA as it will now be known, gives a layer of respectability to the process of pork barrelling.
Albanese has said: “The committees will be absorbed into a new organisation to be called Regional Development Australia, which will administer a new program of regional development grants under guidelines still being developed. RDA will also take on broader responsibilities to provide regional feedback to the Government.”
The detail is still missing, but in all likelihood the ACCs will simply be rebadged and have new members appointed who will be more sympathetic to Labor policy.
Labor has a mandate to do this. They don’t have a mandate though to waste taxpayers money.
It might give the impression of vigor to “create” a new advisory organisation, but in realty it’s the same as the old group, except it has a new name and a new master.
I have to question the wisdom of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in printing, signage and web development simply to satisfy a political whim.
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