Boundary change adjustments

The geographic area an RDA Committee is Funded to service (its Boundaries) is defined in the Funding Agreement at Schedule A and Schedule B of the Victorian Funding Agreement.

RDA Boundaries have been set to generally accord with State regional development boundaries or structures where possible, and currently do not cross State/Territory borders. In most cases they incorporate complete local government areas and, where necessary, Commonwealth Territories and/or unincorporated areas in any State.

In a small number of cases a local government area may be divided between two RDA Committees where a clearly definable district aligns better with one RDA Committee, whilst the remainder aligns better with another RDA Committee. Such arrangements are only entered into with the agreement of both RDA Committees and the support of relevant stakeholders such as the local governments affected and partner State or Territory governments.

For the standalone capital city RDA Committees of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide Metropolitan, ‘region’ refers to the areas of their state outside of their boundaries.

RDA Boundary Adjustments

RDA Boundaries may be adjusted where changes to local government boundaries, changing demographics or other relevant factors make such changes desirable.

RDA Committees, and partner State or Territory governments and local governments, may request RDA Boundary adjustments. The Department of Infrastructure, Transport Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (the department) may initiate boundary changes where necessary.

Boundary adjustment requests must be made in writing to the department's liaison officer specified in the Funding Agreement, and include:

• a clear business case for the proposed change;
• written support from all RDA Committees affected by the proposed changes;
• where relevant, written support from a partner State or Territory government; and
• written support from other relevant stakeholders such as local chambers of commerce, local members of parliament and the like.

Consideration of requests for boundary changes will be on a case-by-case basis by the Commonwealth Minister with responsibility for the RDA program, in conjunction with their State or Territory Ministerial counterpart in partner jurisdictions, and with the President of the Local Government Association of South Australia for RDA Committees in South Australia.

Changes to funding to support any changes resulting from boundary adjustments will be negotiated with the affected RDA Committees prior to a decision to change a Boundary. The views of partner State or Territory governments may also be considered in any changes to respective RDA Committees' Funding allocations.

Any changes to Boundaries of an RDA Committee will require a variation to their Funding Agreement(s) to reflect the changes to the area covered.

Attachment 1.B—Boundary Adjustment Form DOCX: 102 KB