Mr Snowdon asked the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, upon notice, on 24 March 2004:

(1) What is the current status of the Rural Transaction Centre (RTC) Program application from the (a) Nguiu, and (b) Yuendumu community in the Northern Territory (NT), which will have a significant Centrelink presence through the establishment of a Centrelink Remote Areas Service Centre (RASC) within the RTC.

(2) When was the application for RTC funding received from the (a) Nguiu, and (b) Yuendumu community; and which application is at a more advanced stage and why.

(3) Can he confirm that his department sends NT Area Consultative Committees (ACC) a short summary of RTC applications from within their regions for their comment on the viability and sustainability of RTC projects; if so, (a) why is a short summary considered adequate for this purpose, and (b) why are copies of the applications not provided.

(4) Has the ACC RTC project officer from Toowoomba been sent to work with communities in the Torres Strait and Cape regions of Queensland; if so, why.

(5) Can he confirm that the Torres Strait ACC wanted to employ the previous GRM International Pty Ltd (GRM) RTC Field Officer to finish off outstanding RTC project applications and business plans before 31 March but were advised that an officer from the Southern Inland Queensland ACC based in Toowoomba would travel to the Torres Strait and complete the business plans and applications.

(6) Are the ACC's which have been funded to staff a position to complete outstanding RTC business plans and applications going to receive a bonus payment of $10,000 plus GST.

(7) Does the recent report requested by the Parliamentary Secretary into the viability of RTC projects duplicate the work of the Courage Partners reports carried out during 2002/2003; if not, why not.

(8) Did the Courage Partners report recommend that the GRM Field Officer Network be engaged past the end of its contract to assist communities to finalise all outstanding business planning activities before the RTC Program end date of 31 March 2004.

(9) Can he confirm that the new Department of Transport and Regional Services' TRAX system (a) was imported from Canada to facilitate on-line applications, management and tracking of Regional Partnerships Program applications, (b) has never operated properly, (c) was found to be incompatible with other departmental systems, and (d) is still not satisfactorily operational; if so, (e) was his department's First Assistant Secretary of Regional Programs one of two people who went to Canada to attempt to sort out problems with the TRAX system, and (f) when is the TRAX system expected to be fully operational.

Mr Anderson (Minister for Transport and Regional Services) —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1) (a) Funding of $460,350 (GST inclusive) to establish the Nguiu Rural Transaction Centre (RTC) was announced on 25 March 2004. (b) Funding of $321,651 (GST inclusive) to establish the Yuendumu RTC was announced on 18 June 2004.

(2) (a) The Nguiu RTC application was received on 8 December 2003. The Nguiu applicant has signed a funding agreement and received a first payment of $380,600 (GST inclusive). (b) The Yuendumu RTC application was received on 11 December 2003. The Yuendumu community have not yet provided project milestones to enable a funding agreement to be drafted.

(3) Yes. (a) On 1 July 2004 the RTC programme ceased receiving applications and all further RTC like-proposals are being assessed by the Regional Partnerships programme. In the transition phase from the RTC Programme to Regional Partnerships the Department engaged the Area Consultative Committee (ACC) to provide comments on RTC applications as they do for applications submitted under Regional Partnerships. The short summary of the RTC application was generally considered adequate for the ACC to comment on the project. (b) In cases where the ACC needed more detail to comment on a project application the Department sent a copy of the full application subject to any commercial in confidence restrictions of the application.

(4) Yes. I am advised that the RTC Support Officer based in Toowoomba has extensive expertise and experience in the RTC programme and the Department chose to deploy the officer to assist these communities based on her experience and ability.

(5) I am advised that my Department received no requests from the Torres Strait ACC regarding the employment of the previous GRM International Field Officer.

(6) The ACCs which have been funded to staff an RTC Support Officer may be eligible for two bonus payments of $5,000 (plus GST) each, if the host ACC satisfies the relevant milestones in the funding agreement with the Department of Transport and Regional Services.

(7) No. The Post Implementation Review of the RTC Programme undertaken by Courage Partners targeted a sample of operating RTCs in order to make comment on the Programme's administration and it was generally qualitative in its approach.

(8) No.

(9) (a) Yes. (b) and (d) The implementation of the system is phased and the Department is working with Infoterra to install functionality as it is released. (c) No. (e) Yes. (f) It is anticipated that full system functionality for the management of regional programmes will be implemented in the first quarter of 2004-05.