Is there anything more brazen than pouring money into a grants scheme that is already being investigated for rorting?
The Building Better Regions fund is being audited by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) over whether funding was consistent with the Commonwealth’s grant rules. But that hasn’t stopped the National Party from topping up the scheme, and bragging about how much control it had over the money via a colour-coded spreadsheet.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce announced another $100 million for the fund this week, saying he didn’t care if the scheme was labelled pork-barrelling.
Now one of his colleagues has openly discussed on radio how the scheme could apparently be rorted.
It follows a familiar script: Coalition MPs were given the chance to lobby for grant funding in their electorates, including ones that didn’t meet the eligibility criteria. And inevitably, funding disproportionately ended up in government-held seats.
Colour-coded democracy
Such is the nature of a government free of a federal integrity body that the details of this latest scandal emerged from an interview on radio station Flow FM, based in Kapunda, South Australia.
Nationals MP Dr Anne Webster, who represents the Victorian electorate of Mallee, said Coalition MPs were given access to a colour-coded spreadsheet and had the opportunity to lobby for projects that did not fully meet the funding criteria.
“The Department of Infrastructure goes through every project application. They make a list and they colour-code them in green and pink,” she said.
“Green is for projects that actually tick off on the criteria for the fund, and pink — they don’t quite. But if an MP wants to really push the project because it’s important for the community, then you’ve got the opportunity to do that.”
The ANAO’s investigation follows questions about whether the scheme misused taxpayer funding in handing out $201.8 million in grants ahead of the 2019 election.
An analysis by Nine newspapers found 156 of the 166 funded projects went to Coalition-held or -targeted seats.
The new revelations could be included in the ANAO’s investigation, which is still taking contributions. But it is not expected to report its findings until May next year, after the federal election.
“I would trust that the ANAO would consider the latest developments in their ongoing audit of the program,” Labor’s infrastructure spokeswoman Catherine King said.
“Deep down, though, the findings of the ANAO won’t change the government’s behaviour. They are so rotten that the only way to stop the rorts is to vote them out.”
A spokesperson for Joyce said the Office of the Auditor-General would expect “nothing less” than for the department to categorise projects according to their eligibility and value for money.
“All selected projects were assessed against publicly available guidelines as eligible and providing value for money,” he said.
Is there a case to be had against this mob that a bunch of us honest, hardworking taxpayers could bring on behalf of all Australians? Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey has already identified serious breaches in the sports rorts and they are proving to be just the tip of the Coalition Government’s rorts iceberg. Jeez I’m fed up with the crap they’re getting away with.
And it will never change until they are totally removed from power and a proper anti-corruption body installed.
And replaced by whom? We have a prescription to achieve a better outcome, but it doesn’t work. We know why it doesn’t work, but the wishful thinking continues. “If we just get rid of this mob, everything will be great.”
It doesn’t matter who we vote for, we’ll get a politician, and that politician will be just like us. Human.
Look at the record of the Opposition. Their every action confirms this. Noble talk, noble ambition, but what do they deliver. Pragmatism.
Whatever it takes to get power. And when we get it, we’ll miraculously discover integrity!
Wishful thinking.
The media will still own them, and our enemy own’s the media. The enemy are rich people. People just like us, with money.
Money is power. Power to create the system. Power to grab more power. Get enough, and no one can touch you.
Morrison is just the puppet of the moment. Replace him with the only choice we have, Albanese, and we may celebrate for a time, but we haven’t changed the system. The same people are pulling the strings.
Conservative means keeping everything the same. Stable government means keeping everything the same.
Corruption is to keep everything the same. It’s the preferred tool of those who govern us.
Democracy as dream. What could be if we weren’t human.
Democracy as hope. What can be if we fight for it.
But we need a plan.
Your cynicism about the cons is well-founded. However, it is a false equivalence to equate the progressive parties with the pack of wide-boys, religious nutbags and chancers inhabiting the Coalition.
Labor has surely had some failures of ethical and upright behaviour, but not to anywhere near the degree of the cons, and never so bare-faced.
At least Labor and the Greens have policies in place to try to kill corruption, enforce truth in political advertising and transparency in donations.
The cons have none; just the attitude that if they can get away with it, then it’s OK.
Failing to support the opposite to the ratbage you’ve already abandoned is effectively the same as supporting those ratbags.
Remember, the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
He who has the gold makes the rules…
Seeing that the current assessment won’t be made public until just after the election, the consequences are that this behaviour will never change.
Institutionalised corruption makes a federal anti corruption body a mutually exclusive concept…………enjoyed by a religious hypocrite.
There actually are Nationals voters who think this distribution of geegaws – ooh, look, another sports facility! – counts as ‘fighting for The Bush’ rather than representatives focused on delivering useful services like health facilities, or even the NBN, to regional and rural constituencies.
and skools ‘n’ stuff!
All things their mates don’t exclusively control, so not much motivation to fund them.
The Beetrooter and his party are proud of their corruption, it should be unbelievable!
But it isn’t.
I was thinking if we could change the boundary of the local National Party held seat so that it included this suburb we could be successful in getting a few more grants. A bit of Gerrymandering never hurt anybody – after all we are in Queensland.
Obviously the rorting is part of a plan from above and is twice blessed.
Should be… but isn’t.
Easy to see why the coalition are scared of a crime commission with teeth When Michael Sukkar was outed over the attempted or alleged branch stacking of the Victorian branch of the libs by channel 9 and the Age , vice president Marcus Bastiaan fell on his sword and Michael Sukkar nominated his own jury. Maybe the current Victorian inquiry could include the actions of the Liberals Victorian branch for the alleged breaches of Sukkar , Kevin Andrews and Marcus Bastiaan
I’m reflecting on how much money, blood and human effort & sacrfice was been spent over the decades (including the ‘Cold War) and yet here we have a ‘command and control and rort economy without a sot being fired
Shot not ‘sot’.
There are probably a few sots who ought to be fired.
Well said
I preferred sot, when referring the Lib-Nats.