Random Analytica

The Regional Development Australia Fund (RDAF) allocations via Round 5 have been announced. Interestingly this was not announced at the Regional Development Australia Conference which was held over the 15-16 June weekend but almost immediately after on the last day of the Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly.

There is another series of RDAF funding via Round 5B which will allocate a further $200-million in funding available until 30 June 2018 (for which I’ll complete a separate round of analytics).

In regard to RDAF Round 5 the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport website stated:

On Wednesday 19 June 2013 the Minister for Regional Development and Local Government, the Hon Anthony Albanese MP, announced that applications for Round Five of the Regional Development Australia Fund (RDAF) open on Friday 21 June 2013. RDAF Round Five is an allocative funding round, with each local government that was funded under the General Purpose component of the Financial Assistance Grants 2012–2013 eligible to apply for funding for infrastructure projects.

RDAF Round Five will provide $150 million to eligible local governments, according to an allocative model, for capital infrastructure projects. $105 million of the funding will be allocated to regional local governments while $45 million will be allocated to urban local governments. The funding for regional local governments will come from the Regional Development Australia Fund and funding for urban local governments will come from the Liveable Cities program. Eligible local governments are those that received the General Purpose component of the local government Financial Assistance Grants in 2012–13.

Funding will be allocated among states and territories on a per capita basis. A base grant of $30,000 will apply for all eligible local governments with the remaining funding in each state or territory to be distributed in the same proportion as the General Purpose funding component of the local government Financial Assistance Grants (as determined by each state and territory local government grants commission).

Effectively this means that all 565 Local Government Area’s within Australia will get funding which totals to $149,999,994. The LGA funding details can be found at on the DoRALGAS site.

Given the extensive detail of this it will be quite a challenge to do the analytics.

Here is a look at the funding commencing with a breakdown by State and I’ll add more graphics and detail as I populate the data.

RDAF Round 5 Funding by Data Population & Population Centre

This chart looks at three items.

The inner ring is a split between funding to capital and non-capital cities. To be clear all the State plus the territorial capitals (Darwin, Canberra and Kingston) are included.

The secondary ring breaks down the funding by the size of the population centre that it is being deployed in. Population size is based upon Australian Bureau of Statistics Census 2011 data and then allocated to one of five categories. The categories are:

• Town: A town or a rural region with a population under 10,000
• Regional Centre: A small city or rural centre with a population between 10,001 and 30,000
• City: A city or regional centre with a population between 30,001 and 100,000
• Large City: A city with a population between 100,001 and 500,000
• Metropolis: Any city with a significant urban area greater than 500,000.

The outer ring is split between funding that I have been able to populate (data verify to council chamber level) and work still ‘in progress’. Currently I have been able to populate 75% (112.5-million) of the funding with 52% of the councils (294 out of 565). At this time I am in the process of working through those councils that received between $200,000 and $300,000 of funding.

RDAF Round 5 Funding by State

The second chart looks at funding by State and is fully updated.

Note: This infographic was created using Tableau Public.

Round 5 Funding by Political Party

This chart looks at funding by political and is not fully updated (see RDAF Round 5 Funding by Data Population & Population Centre).

To populate the entire chart from the outset I specifically selected a seat held by an Independent, the Greens and Katter’s Australia Party (KAP). On the conservative side (in blue) the slices are split into the Liberal Party, the Liberal National Party (QLD) and the Country Liberal Party (NT). The National Party section (in yellow) also includes funding that was allocated to O’Connor, which is held by Tony Crook of the WA National Party.

Round 5 Funding by 2 Party Preferred (2PP)

The next chart looks at funding by how safe the seat is considered. The Australian Electoral Commission states that Divisions with a 2-party preferred (2PP) percentile of 60% or greater are safe, those between 56 – 60% are fairly safe and those between 50 – 56% are marginal. Where a seat is considered marginal (based on 2010 election results) I have split into Labor, Coalition and Independent.

Final Thoughts

I’ll continue to update this article as I populate the data down to LGA level.

Declaration of Interest: I have utilised only publically sourced information and all analysis and views expressed are my own and do not reflect that of any employer or organisation that I am associated with.

Note: My previous posts on Regional Development funding can be found at:

• Random Analytics: RDAF Rd 4 Funding Analysis;
• Random Analytics: Education Investment Fund Regional Priorities Round; and
• Random Analytics: TIRF Funding Analysis (Round 1).

Update (3/07/2013)

• Added Funding by Population Centre, Funding by Political Party & Funding by 2PP sections with inclusion of 20% of the funding data populated.

Update (22/07/2013)

• Updated Funding by Population Centre, Funding by Political Party & Funding by 2PP sections with 40% of the data populated.

Update (4/08/2013)

• Updated Funding by Population Centre, Funding by Political Party & Funding by 2PP sections with 50% of the funding data populated. Additionally added a link to RDAF Round 5B.

Update (14/08/2013)

• Updated Funding by Population Centre, Funding by Political Party & Funding by 2PP sections with 65% of the funding data populated.

Update (29/08/2013)

• Updated Funding by Population Centre, Funding by Political Party & Funding by 2PP sections with 75% of the funding data populated.

From mid-June 2013 announcements by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport commenced in relation to the Regional Development Australia Fund (RDAF) Round 4 series of grants.

An overview of RDAF Round 4 from the Department website:

The government has announced a large strategic package to support the immediate and critical needs of regional Australia. This funding is supported by the proceeds of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax. Round Four of RDAF is a key element of this package and provides $175 million in grants to strategic infrastructure projects in regional Australia, with the maximum grant being $15 million.

Funding from Round Four will be provided to the highest priorities of communities, and seek to improve liveability and the sense of community. Regional Development Australia committees will again play a key role, identifying projects to proceed to full application. These projects will be selected because they best meet the needs of the regions, address priorities in the committee’s Regional Plans, and deliver real benefits to regional Australians.

For those interested in the RDAF Round 4 grants series here are some analytics of the 41-grants that have been announced. Four projects have been officially notified since Kevin Rudd was confirmed in his second term as Prime Minister.

RDAF Round 4 Funding by Allocation & Population Centre

This chart looks at three items.

The inner ring is a split between funding to capital and non-capital cities. To be clear all State or Territory capitals including Kingston, Norfolk Island are considered capitals.

The secondary ring breaks down the funding by the size of the population centre that it is being deployed in. Population size is based upon Australian Bureau of Statistics Census 2011 data and then allocated to one of five categories. The categories are:

• Town: A town or a rural region with a population under 10,000
• Regional Centre: A small city or rural centre with a population between 10,001 and 30,000
• City: A city or regional centre with a population between 30,001 and 100,000
• Large City: A city with a population between 100,001 and 500,000
• Metropolis: Any city with a significant urban area greater than 500,000.

The outer ring shows the over allocation of funding. The amount of funding for Round 3 (Regional) was originally set at $50-million and Round 4 was $175-million as per the Ministers Forward. RDAF Round 3 was under allocated approximately 19.5-million in funding while RDAF Round 4 currently has an over allocation of $20.2-million (11.6%).

RDAF Round 4 Funding by State

The next chart looks at current funding by State.

Norfolk Island, a self-governing external territory of Australia won a single project worth $13-million as part of RDAF Round 4. As at 24 July 2013 the data.gov.au website stated that:

NSW

RDA South Coast includes the external territory of Jervis Bay. In previous data releases, Lord Howe Island (part of the ABS Unincorporated NSW) was part of RDA Northern Rivers. On the 16 of August 2011, Lord Howe Island declared to be represented by Mid North Coast.

On the 28 of May 2012, there were major changes to 4 RDA boundaries with Bland moving from RDA Central West to RDA Riverina and Tumbarumba moving from RDA Southern Inland to RDA Murray.

Norfolk Island IS NOT part of any RDA.

Note: This infographic was created using Tableau Public.

Round 4 Funding by Political Party

This chart looks at funding by political party and includes funding to Norfolk Island which is an independent territory (thus politically unaffiliated).

The National Party slice includes funding that was allocated to O’Connor, which is held by Tony Crook of the WA National Party (technically a different party).

Since Kevin Rudd commenced his second term as Prime Minister five new projects have been announced with $29.05-million in total funding. All five projects have gone to ALP held seats and one of those projects, the Lake Macquarie Transport Interchange has previously received $7-million funding as part of RDAF Round 2.

Round 4 Funding by 2 Party Preferred

The next chart looks at funding by how safe the seat is considered. The Australian Electoral Commission states that Divisions with a 2-party preferred (2PP) percentile of 60% or greater are safe, those between 56 – 60% are fairly safe and those between 50 – 56% are marginal. Where a seat is considered marginal (based on 2010 election results) I have split into Labor, Coalition and Independent.

Round 4 Funding by Electorate

The following chart looks at the top ten electorates or external territories that have been funded.

Although filled with The National Party logo the Division of O’Connor is technically held by the WA National. The current sitting member, Tony Crook, has stated that he wanted to be treated as an Independent during most of his term although will be resigning from federal politics at the next election.

Eden Monaro was one of five projects to have received enough funding after Kevin Rudd commenced his second term to be included in the top 10 ten electorates by funding allocation.

Round 4 Funding by Employment Sector

The second last chart looks at funding by employment sector. I have created a similar selection to that implemented by Seek but have amended to reflect a regional development framework and focus. The employment sectors focus on the longer term operational outcome of the funding, not its infrastructure or implementation phase(s).

Currently several employment sectors have not received funding in this round including:

• Mining, Resources & Energy;
• ICT;
• Education & Training;
• Construction;
• Call Centre & Customer Services; and
• Banking & Financial Services.

Round 4 Funding by Regional Development Australia (RDA) Region

The final chart looks at the top dozen RDA Regions by allocated funding (with additional State and Territory detail represented by relevant flag) .

Final Thoughts

I’ll continue to update this article as more projects get announced.

Declaration of Interest: I have utilised only publically sourced information and all analysis and views expressed are my own and do not reflect that of any employer or organisation that I am associated with.

Note: My previous posts on Regional Development funding can be found at:

• Random Analytics: RDAF Rd 3 Funding Analysis (Final);
• Random Analytics: EIF Rounds 1-3 Analysis; and
• Random Analytics: TIRF Funding Analysis (Round 1).

Update (19/06/2013)

• Updated all graphs/infographics after 9-projects were announced via the RDAF Round 4 Department page.

Update (20/06/2013)

• No new data. Upgraded Funding by State to a Tableau Infographic and added Norfolk Island detail.

Update (24/06/2013)

• No new data. Upgraded Funding by RDA Region by adding State or Territory flags.

Update (16/07/2013)

• Updated all graphs/infographics after 4-projects were announced via the RDAF Round 4 Department page.

Update (24/07/2013)

• Updated all graphs/infographics (with exception of Funding by Seat & RDA Region) after a single project was announced via the RDAF Round 4 Department page. Additionally, included a Funding by Employment Section.

On 26 October 2012 the third-round of Regional Development Australia Funding (RDAF) grants were opened to Expressions of Interest and for those that were successful the full applications were to be submitted no-later-than 27 March 2013.

An overview as per the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport website:

Round 3 is providing $50 million for priority infrastructure in towns with a population of 30,000 people or less. Grants of between $50,000 and $500,000 are available to eligible applicants.

Local governments and not-for-profit organisations with an annual income of at least $500,000 (averaged over the most recent two years) were eligible to apply for Regional Development Australia Fund Round Three of the Regional Development Australia Fund. Other organisations were able to participate in the program as a member of a consortium led by an eligible applicant.

The Department announced the successful applicants with a comprehensive list of project financials and details on 24 May 2013.

Here is my analysis.

RDAF Round 3 Funding by State

The first infographic is funding by State.

Of the 79 RDAF Round 3 grants 18 are located in NSW, 16 in Queensland, 15 in Victoria, 12-each in South Australia and Western Australia, three in Tasmania, two in the Northern Territory and one in Australian external territory of Norfolk Island.

At 15-projects and $7,175,721 (23.2%) Victoria was the state given the most funding at an average of $478,381.4 per project. The Northern Territory had the least funding of any internal state or territory with two projects and $580,000 (1.9%). South Australia had the lowest grant average with 12-projects and $3,463,498 in funding, or $288,625 per project.

Of the $50-million on offer only $30,895,933 was distributed, a shortfall of 38.2%. Included in this amount Australian external territories (in this case Norfolk Island) also were granted one project worth $411,193 in funding.

Note: This infographic was created using Tableau Public.

RDAF Funding by Population Centre

This chart breaks down the funding by the size of the population centre that it is being deployed in. Population size is based upon Australian Bureau of Statistics Census 2011 data and then allocated to one of into five categories. The categories are:

• Town: A town or a rural region with a population under 10,000
• Regional Centre: A small city or rural centre with a population between 10,001 and 30,000
• City: A city or regional centre with a population between 30,001 and 100,000
• Large City: A city with a population between 100,001 and 500,000
• Metropolis: Any city with a significant urban area greater than 500,000.

From the 79-projects and $30,895,933 which was allocated 75.4% went to towns under 10,000, 23% went to regional centres and only one project went to an area that I would consider a city and another was partially linked to a city, although the bulk of the funding went to surrounding towns. Details of the two issues are:

• The Leopold Community Hub project won by the Greater Geelong City Council, an outlying suburb of Geelong which has a total population of 173,452 should not have been allowed to proceed on the basis that it is not a “located in a town with a population of 30,000 or less” as per the guideline Department criteria;

• The Skate in the Tropics project won by the Cairns Regional Council included three small regional towns and an outer suburb of Cairns. Mossman, Babinda and Wonga Beach all qualify under the Department criteria; however Gordonvale falls into the significant urban area of Cairns with a population of 133,911.

Round 3 Funding by Political Party

This chart looks at funding by political party.

The biggest winner from RDAF Round 3 was not a political party but Treasury which was able to not expend $19.1-million in revenue or 38.2% of the promised funding grants.

Of the RDAF Round 3 grants where funding was allocated 47 went to seats held by the Coalition, 26 went to Labor, there were three for the Independents (two for New England and one for Lyne), two for the Katter’s Australian Party and one to Norfolk Island which is party non-affiliated.

Of the $30,895,933 which was allocated seats held by Labor received $10.156-million (20.3%), the Coalition $18.157-million (36.3%) (split between the Liberal, Liberal National Queensland and National parties) and the minor parties and independents received $2.150-million (4.3%).

Round 3 Funding by 2PP

The next chart looks at funding by how safe the seat is (the Australian Electoral Commission states that Divisions with a 2-party preferred (2PP) percentile of 60% or greater are safe, those between 56 – 60% are fairly safe and those between 50 – 56% are marginal. Where a seat is considered marginal (based on 2010 election results) I have split into Labor, Coalition and Independent (to cover the seat of Denison).

From the 79 projects 41 are in seats considered safe, 12 are fairly safe and one was in a non-affiliated external territory.

25 grants are from marginal seats with a total funding allocation of $9.910-million (32.1%). The marginal seats were split 15 to Labor and ten to the Coalition. They include:

• Blair: One project ($500,000) held by Labor;
• Capricornia: Two projects ($734,203) held by Labor;
• Canning: One project ($365,749) held by the Liberals;
• Casey: One project ($300,000) held by the Liberals;
• Corangamite: Three projects ($1,480,000) held by Labor;
• Eden-Monaro: Two projects ($882,250) held by Labor;
• Flynn: Two projects ($716,693) held by the Liberal National QLD Party;
• Gilmore: One project ($400,000) held by the Liberals;
• Herbert: One project ($450,000) currently held by LNQ;
• La Trobe: One project ($500,000) held by Labor;
• Leichardt: Two projects ($615,000) held by the LNQ;
• Lingiari: Four projects ($1,099,870) held by Labor;
• McEwan: One project ($500,000) held by Labor;
• McMillan: One project ($490,000) held by the Liberals
• Page: One project (425,500) held by Labor;
• Paterson: One project ($450,000) held by the Liberals.

Round 3 Funding by Electorate

The second last chart looks at funding by Electorate.

48-electorates won funding as part of the RDAF Round 3.

The most funding awarded to a Coalition held seat is O’Connor (WA), with four projects and $1,555,300 dollars in funding. Given that Tony Crook was elected to Parliament on a National Party ticket but considers himself an independent the next best Coalition seat is Durack (WA) with three projects and $1.5-million in funding.

Corangamite was the highest funded Labor seat with three projects and $1.48-million dollars in funding.

As for the Independents, New England currently has the most funding with two projects worth $500,000 apiece.

Round 3 Funding by Regional Development Australia (RDA) Region

The final chart looks at funding by RDA Region.

45 out of 50 RDA regions who were able to apply for funding received a project as part of RDAF Round 3. Capital cities, representing six regions were not allowed to apply for funding in this round.

The most funding awarded to a region was shared between Lodden Mallee (VIC) and Barwon South West (VIC) with three projects and $1.5-million dollars in grants, followed closely by the Grampians (VIC) with three projects and $1.48-million in grants.

Final Thoughts

The Regional Development Australia Fund Round 3 was setup to allocate much needed funds to genuinely regional centres and to respond to criticisms of previous rounds where funding had gone to cities over regional centres and dominated coastal regions over the interior.

The positives out of this round is that the funds have been equitably distributed on many of the normal indicators and where there is a higher ratio, they are within acceptable margins and should be an expectation of incumbency.

Although I hesitate to make a criticism, I feel obligated given the funding shortfall of nearly $20-million dollars which has not been widely publicized, nor adequately explained by the Department or by the relevant Ministers. That amount of funding would have supported another 40 plus projects in the bush and regions.

I’m empathetic of the Federal treasuries structural budget issues but the RDAF funding rounds were a $1-billion dollar programme designed to support one-off projects and tens of thousands of jobs in some of Australia’s most regional and economically disadvantaged areas.

It is ironic that on the same day as the RDAF Round 3 funding was publicized Ford announced that it would stop building cars in Australia. This announcement was soon followed with an immediate pledge of $39-million by the Federal & Victorian governments to support the 1200 employees of Ford, a company which has received more than $1.1-billion in tax-funded support over the past 12-years.

Declaration of Interest: I have utilised only publically sourced information and all analysis and views expressed are my own and do not reflect that of any employer or organisation that I am associated with.

Note: My previous post on RDAF Round 1 & 2 funding can be found at Random Analytics: RDAF Funding Analysis

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Updates (16/06/2013)

• The RDAF Round 3 analysis was returned to the Random Analytics site at the commencement of RDAF Round 4 announcements.