While this legislation may only be for NSW it reflects a trend across the country. Grants in
all States and the Australian Government are not going to be the same as the last 10 years and this is why:
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Grant guidelines have now been released for the first round of the Australian Government’s new $600 million Growing Regions Program, with expressions of interest to open on July 5 this year.
Section51 is in the unique position of receiving an invitation to appear in front of the Inquiry into Commonwealth Grants Administration. As the invitation says:
Inquiry into Commonwealth Grants Administration The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit invites representatives of Section51 to appear at public hearings on Friday 17 March 2023 for the Committee’s inquiry into Commonwealth Grants Administration. The purpose of the hearing is to further explore the matters raised in your submission to the inquiry, as relevant to the inquiry’s terms of reference. Section51 over the years has taken an approach of working quietly in the background supporting you as the wonderful council project and grants officers. We have considerable success with grant applications, but we don’t make a lot of noise about it as our satisfaction comes from seeing you happy and the results on the ground in your LGA. The children laughing in the playground, the actors who have a new theatre and so much more. For those who have come to our webinar and workshops you know how proud we are of our successes with our many stories. But this time we would like to share.
Section51 welcomes 2023 as a new and exciting year for grants. We have already seen announcements from the Australian Government that grants will open on Infrastructure, Climate Change, Environment and Arts for local government and communities across Australia. This is just the start as more announcements are expected in the May budget.
Infrastructure The Growing Regions Program was announced in the October Budget. This is the replacement of BBRF and will ‘provide access to funding for capital works for community and economic infrastructure across our rural and regional areas’. Section51 has been in contact with the Department of Infrastructure who are managing this grant program. The advice we received is that brand new guidelines are being written which are to be released for your comment in February. When the guidelines are completed the grant program is anticipated to open in May. Now is the time to start preparing your projects to be grant ready. Our 2023 Workshop Webinar on how to prepare a successful project is booking out fast. Click here to sign up. Section51 has been busy preparing for the new Australian Governments approach to grants, writing applications for large State Government grant programs, preparing milestone and final reports and much more. This includes preparing a new workshop series which will be available soon. More to come in the next blog.
For many, the not surprising news turned up by email on Monday October 24th which read ‘After careful consideration, the Government has decided the Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF) will be discontinued and no further funding will be available. Existing BBRF projects funded in Rounds 1 to 5 will continue in line with the terms of the grant agreement and grant opportunity guidelines.’ This means all applications for Round 6 are scrapped. But a new funding opportunity has been announced. |
Section51 Team Blog
Our blog has arrived out of many requests for casual updates about the Grants and Funding system. CategoriesArchives
May 2023
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