Member for Wollongong, Paul Scully, has welcomed the opening of third round applications for the Port Kembla Community Investment Fund (PKCIF) today.
Up to $4 million in total funding will be available for eligible projects in the Port Kembla area.
Mr Scully has renewed his call from earlier this week that the NSW Government must rule out from funding eligibility any NSW Government Department or agency.
In the second round of funding under the PKCIF, the Department of Planning and the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) were awarded total funding of $144,000.
The 2018 Guidelines indicate that no funding will be provided to department or agencies for projects already funded or budgeted.
The same guidelines applied in the 2017 second round of the PKCIF, yet funding was provided to one Department and one agency.
Mr Scully wrote to the Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW, who administers the PKCIF, on Monday indicating that the PKCIF should be dedicated to fund eligible merit-based community projects from Port Kembla community groups.
He said Departments and agencies should fund their own projects from within existing portfolio responsibilities and be willing to match new funding requests.
Mr Scully also questioned why the NSW Government had outsourced today’s announcement that PKCIF applications were opened to a Liberal Party Wollongong Councillor instead of being made by either the Deputy Premier or the Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra and South Coast.
It was also disappointing to see no Port Kembla residents were included as part of the PKCIF assessment panel.
Comments attributable to Paul Scully MP:
“I welcome the opening of applications for the third round of funding under the Port Kembla Community Investment Fund.
“I urge local community groups in Port Kembla to make their applications to share in the $4 million in funding that is up for grabs.
“I’ll be keeping a close eye on the application process so that no NSW Government Department or agency doesn’t take advantage of the funding on offer in this round.
“The PKCIF should be dedicated to funding local community projects in Port Kembla, not as an a la carte all-you-can-eat buffet for government departments and agencies, which should fund their projects from existing programs in their portfolios.
“Despite being excluded from today’s announcement, I have also written to Gareth Ward MP asking that there be a bipartisan approach to the project assessments.”
