Dubbo MP Troy Grant said two freight studies released by RDA Orana are examples of the hard work it has done to advance the region.
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Mr Grant said despite recent uncertainty about the concept of Regional Development Australia organisations, sparked by a federal government review, the Orana division was meeting its brief.
In a recent meeting with the RDA group, Mr Grant said he gave clear advice about “what they should be focusing on until their future is known and what greater cooperative effort they need to make with other government agencies and people who are contributing to economic growth in a region”.
However he said Orana was already doing it well.
“Some RDAs have become rubber stamps for funding applications for the federal government but RDA Orana have shown a lot of initiative,” he said.
“I think their greatest success is the Golden Highway, where they did the study, worked across multiple council boundaries, and now we’ve got funding into the Golden Highway upgrade.”
On Monday RDA Orana released the Orana Freight and Logistics Capability Study into road and rail freight, and the Orana International Air Freight Feasibility Study.
Mr Grant said both studies gave an insight into the future of freight transport for the Orana region and what growth could be expected in the future, including the potential addition of air freight in the future.
“There’s no doubt Dubbo has got a large growth pattern ahead of it and the study really shows what capacity we have to add air freight into that mix,” he said.
