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Parliamentary Questions


Question On Notice No. 1693 asked in the Legislative Council on 11 October 2018 by Hon Martin Aldridge

Question Directed to the: Minister for Regional Development
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Tabled Paper No: 2202- View tabled paper


Question

I refer to the ministerial statement of 10 October 2018 and media statement of the same date relating to the governments Digital Farm program, and I ask:
(a) did the Minister have any contact or relationship with CipherTel Pty Ltd (CipherTel) prior to the approval of $1.5 million in grant funding being awarded and announced by the Minister;
(b) if yes to (a), what was the nature of the contact or relationship and when did it occur;
(c) has any person or organisation contacted the Minister or her office in support of CipherTel, its projects and its grant application;
(d) if yes to (c), what was the nature of the contact, by whom and on what date;
(e) please provide the business case for the digital farm program;
(f) please provide the application for grant funding submitted by CipherTel to the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development;
(g) please provide a copy of the executed grant agreement or financial assistance agreement with CipherTel;
(h) please provide the guidelines and criteria for funding under the digital farms program;
(i) what is the source of the $1.5 million in matching funding from CipherTel for the project;
(j) who were the unsuccessful applicants for funding under the digital farm program;
(k) what is the total amount of funding now granted or committed from the digital farm program;
(l) what is the total budget allocation for the digital farm program; and
(m) has the Member for Bunbury been involved in any way with the application, assessment or approval of the grant to CipherTel?

Answered on 20 November 2018

(a)       No

(b)       N/A

(c)       Not to my knowledge

(d)       N/A

(e)       There is no separate business case for the Digital Farm program as it is a delivery element of the Agricultural Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund that was approved by Cabinet. Proponents were required to submit a detailed application that was commensurate with the scale of the project. Applications were assessed by an independent panel with technical support from KPMG.

Comprehensive business cases will be required for larger investments arising from the Grainbelt Digital Enhancement project.

(f)        The application for grant funding from CipherTel to the Department contains commercially sensitive information of a private entity, full disclosure of which would not be appropriate to table in Parliament.

(g)       The Financial Assistance Agreement is still under negotiation.

(h)       [See Tabled Paper No.:   ].

(i)        CipherTel is pursuing leveraged funding from various stakeholders including Shires, Grower Groups and Industry.

(j)        it is not appropriate nor is it common practice to release the names of unsuccessful applicants for grant programs.

(k)       As at 8 November 2018, a total of $3.8 million of grant funding has been announced.

(l)        Total budget allocation for the Digital Farm program is $5 million.

(m)      No