Portfolio — 3 June 2026

Minister for Regional Development Kristy McBain used Question Time on 3 June to announce a further $750 million for future rounds of the Growing Regions and Thriving Suburbs community infrastructure programs, layering new commitments on top of the existing $400 million Regional Precincts and Partnerships projects. The headline figure substantially extends the government's regional infrastructure footprint and signals an ongoing commitment to community-driven capital works as a policy priority for the term.

McBain anchored the announcement in delivered outcomes, noting the Growing Regions Fund has already distributed close to $600 million. She drew on a local example to illustrate impact: $8 million in Growing Regions funding has been used to revitalise the Mission Beach town centre in Queensland, a project she attributed by name to Mayor Teresa Millwood [TA-260603-house-804d9cb5f6e1:s231].

A further recent milestone — $48 million across 12 new projects announced last month, including more than $9.5 million for the Big hART artisan precinct in Wynyard, Tasmania — provided evidence of the program's geographic reach beyond Queensland. The political framing was pointed: McBain contrasted the current government's merit-based, transparent allocation process with what she characterised as the previous coalition government's pork-barrelling of $261 million of the $272 million Regional Growth Fund to coalition-held seats ahead of the 2019 election.

That contrast functions both as a policy positioning claim and as a standing attack line on the opposition's regional credentials. The portfolio's stated approach — merit-based grants that create jobs, grow local economies and strengthen regional resilience — was repeated explicitly, signalling it as the government's preferred rhetorical frame for this spending envelope.