By Ann Marie Angebrandt
FUNDING for community building projects may dry up if five regional committees are replaced by a Melbourne-wide organisation.
That’s the fear expressed by members of Melbourne’s five consultative committees.
The committees were established more than a decade ago to help launch community projects, funded by the Federal Government.
Chris MacGregor, chairman of Melbourne West Area Consultative Committee (MWACC), said her group hoped to keep the present arrangement.
“This is a region on its own and it has a unique set of circumstances,” she said.
The MWACC attracted $1.2 million in Federal Government regional partnership cash last year, but more than five times that was returned to the local economy.
Projects ranged from establishing an automotive workshop in Sunshine, to building a community kitchen for Maribyrnong’s Vietnamese residents.
Warren Truss, the Federal Minister for Regional Services, told the committees he is contemplating merging Melbourne’s five organisations.
The change would bring Melbourne into line with the structure of similar committees in other capital cities.
Mr Truss, in a letter to the five Melbourne committees, stated that Melbourne was the most expensive city to run the program, in terms of operational funds.
“In the period 1 July 2004 to 30 December 2005, the five area consultative committees consumed 8.5 per cent of total operational funds, but achieved only 2 per cent of the total approved project funds nationally,” he wrote.
Michael Iaccarino, executive officer of the MWACC, said administrative costs to run his organisation were about $240,000 a year.
He agreed with Ms MacGregor that the work done by the MWACC meant it needed to be close to the community.
Mr Iaccarino said he expected a decision within weeks.
