In September the government announced that half the fund would be dedicated to tourism-related infrastructure, in a bid to help the sector battered first by bushfires and then Covid-19.
Joyce told Guardian Australia the BBRF is “an essential program because it gives some sort of balance back to projects in the regions, the larger geographic area, over the massive political weight that an urban base like Sydney has”.
Joyce said he was “disappointed” at the way regional funding programs had been handled.
“When I was there, we had $272m in the national regional growth fund for projects valued $10m and over, and the rest of $500m [$228m] in the BBRF – now the national regional growth fund has disappeared altogether.”
What we learned today, Thursday 14 January
With that, weâll be closing the blog for today. Hereâs a recap of the dayâs big news stories:
Melbourneâs north. Victoria police say the womanâs husband, and the father of the three children â aged seven, five and three â is assisting with the investigation but people should not presume culpability on that basis because âthat would be grossly unfairâ. When asked if the deaths had been a murder-suicide, Victoriaâs acting deputy police commissioner,
Robert Hill, said: âThat could possibly be relevant.â
The US tennis player
Organisers of the Invasion Day rally in Melbourne have told participants to wear a mask at all times and stay in groups of no more than 100, 10 metres apart, to comply with Covid-safe rules.
Dating Men & Sleeping With Women: Nadia Bokody’s Open Relationship
No Filter
Jessie s Heartsick
Mamamia Out Loud
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Indigenous Rights Lead Nolan Hunter saying McCormack must be condemned in the strongest terms .
It is appalling that our national leadership views the Australia #BLM protests that were conducted in 2020 as race riots when they were all peaceful protests to call out the ongoing injustice of Indigenous deaths in custody https://t.co/VTRX04ie41 Prof. Jacinta Elston (@JacintaElston) January 11, 2021
But on Tuesday, despite the backlash, McCormack doubled down insisting there are similarities and there is no need to withdraw his comments.
“That is part of living in a democratic country.”
A provably false contention has the same value as a statement of verifiable fact under the McCormack position.
Then there is that broader matter of government credibility should its MPs be allowed to say whatever they make up under a confected appeal to free speech.
McCormack’s creation of contentious facts could be taken as permission to reject those nuisances such as confirmed medical advice and science, allowing campaigns against measures to deal with the pandemic or changes in the climate.
It is not an outlook one might expect from an acting prime minister who once was a journalist, a profession ideally dedicated to facts. It might have been a bout of clumsy wording which can strike us all. But McCormack has declined to retract it.