After almost two months of deliberations, project milestones for the Queensland Feral Pest Initiative are finally being delivered to proponents for signing off.
According to a spokesman for Agriculture Minister Leanne Donaldson, DAF has been working with groups earmarked for funding to negotiate the finer details of their cluster fencing programs since the December announcement.
“While most applications provided sufficient information, DAF has worked with proponents to clarify elements of projects in accordance with the Oversight Group recommendations,” he said.
The news will be music to the ears of Remote Area Planning and Development board CEO David Arnold, who has been fielding almost-daily calls from people wanting to know when they can start their projects.
“It’s been out of my hands,” he said. “The government needed more clarifying information, which we provided.
“We’re ready to go – we have our legals in place, draft application forms ready, and the assessment panel just about picked.”
RAPAD is to oversee the distribution of $5.45m through the program, while the South West NRM group is in charge of $6m.
Mr Arnold said his group had received 31 expressions of interest, covering 3m ha, which was “well oversubscribed”.
“That was simply a means for us to justify our application to government and isn’t an assurance of funds,” he said.
He expected that maybe 10 to 20 per cent of the original expressions wouldn’t proceed once people worked through confirming their legal and financial status and their willingness to get into a binding financial relationship with their neighbours.
“The application process will realistically take a minimum of six weeks,” Mr Arnold said. “At an absolute minimum, we’re still at least three months away from money hitting the ground.”
The government’s oversight group met last Friday and provided “valuable input into the Grant Deed and proposed milestones for each project that have been based on the applications”, according to the DAF spokesman.
“The project milestones will be sent to proponents this week, and they will be asked to review their inclusion in the grant agreements to be progressed for final sign off by both parties. We are seeking to get responses within a week.
“Once the proponents sign the agreements DAF expects the funding to flow quickly.”
Mr Arnold said he hoped to publish the map of expressions of interest.
“We may have the situation where people 10km away from each other aren’t aware of what the other is doing.”
He believed that knowledge may lead to modifications to applications.
