Thursday, 6 March 2025

Western Victoria Region

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:54): (1452) My question for the Minister for Regional Development concerns Regional Development Australia Grampians region, which covers a substantial part of my Western Victoria region electorate. Minister, on Tuesday I raised the sacking of RDA chair Stuart Benjamin, whose term of advocacy and service was ended recently with no public acknowledgement. Despite your denial of responsibility, you might have had time since Tuesday to check your notes and discover that you are in fact jointly in charge of RDA chair appointments. Since the Victorian taxpayer is funding them, it would be pretty derelict of you to not to take an interest. Minister, can you now confirm that you are responsible and that you therefore did jointly choose not to renew Stuart Benjamin’s tenure? You reappointed every other RDA chair in Victoria, including long-serving chair Steve Kozlowski. Why did you single out Mr Benjamin for sacking?