The potential for the normalisation of pork-barrelling has emerged as an election issue after it was revealed Labor is promising $750 million in community projects in the lead-up to the expected mid-May election.
These projects, which The Sydney Morning Herald reports today would benefit “dozens” of electorates including marginal seats, bring to mind the so-called “sports rorts” affair of 2019.
The Coalition government has been accused of favouring electorally sensitive seats in the distribution of $102 million in grants to sporting organisations. Labor argues its pledges are normal electioneering.
Opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Catherine King called attacks on the funding promises “a desperate attempt at distraction from a desperate government”.
“There’s nothing unusual about political parties making election commitments,” King told Crikey in a statement.
“The real scandal is the Morrison-Joyce government repeatedly using billion-dollar budgeted funds for political purposes when they have been in government for nearly a decade.”
King says Labor had “worked hard to choose projects that have the support of local and state governments around Australia, in both Labor- and Coalition-held seats”.
“Compare that to four car parks that the treasurer [Josh Frydenberg] had to cancel in his own seat because local councils and community groups didn’t want a bar of them,” she said.
“If the government is so concerned with standards in political life, why don’t they join with Labor in committing to a real national anti-corruption commission?”
But Finance Minister Simon Birmingham accused Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese of hypocrisy.
“Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party have spent the last three years railing against the idea that grants could be doled out on the basis of whether or not it was a marginal seat,” he said on RN Breakfast.
”I have defended the fact that we took promises to the last election for grants, and we delivered upon those promises.”
Birmingham then appeared to confirm the government had spent taxpayer money to protect its political interests, rather than on merit, by saying: “And now they are exposed as doing exactly the same. It’s the hypocrisy that I am calling out, the rank hypocrisy. What it means is that Anthony Albanese has been lying to you and to everybody else when he said he would take a different approach.”
However, the Morrison government did break a high-profile election promise when it abandoned its $660 million commuter car park pledge — “car pork” — when it was criticised by the auditor-general for the political weighting of the 47 community recipients.
The list of Labor pledges would go to the Infrastructure Department for evaluation, as recommended by the Australian National Audit Office.
An example of the projects is the announced by King last week for the Sydney seat of Reid. The announcement was made jointly with Labor’s candidate in the Liberal-held seat: “An Albanese Labor government will partner with the city of Parramatta and commit $8.5 million to progress the Hill Road master plan, including a much-needed upgrade to the central spine of Wentworth Point. Over the last 10 years, Wentworth Point has transformed from an industrial zone into a growing residential hub with a population.”
Pork-barrelling has become a political issue of trust since sports rorts, and last November former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian claimed it was standard procedure.
“I don’t think it would be a surprise to anybody that we throw money at seats to keep them,” she said.
Farr must have got this from the Nine papers this morning, who probably got it direct from the coalition. It’s even more shallow than their slanted David Crowe version, and takes quite a while to get to this key sentence which make all the difference:
The list of Labor pledges would go to the Infrastructure Department for evaluation, as recommended by the Australian National Audit Office.
Labor is open about its spending, the coalition were secretive and likely intend to be so again. It doesn’t really look like the two can be compared. A waste of a minute’s reading time.
How much are we paying Malcolm Farr to produce shallow, contextless ‘he said, she said’ content that could be generated by computer and/or found for free elsewhere.
Malcolm, you have decades of experience to draw on and an educated, engaged and informed audience here. Give us some analysis, not this drivel.
I find it interesting to listen to the weekly Two Grumpy Hacks podcast by Dennis Atkins and Malcolm Farr. They don’t pull their punches talking about the state of politics in Australia.
If that is the case then this thin gruel seems to have bee written to a house style.
Or just muscle memory from decades as a Moloch hack.
I agree Two Grumpy Hacks is great – tho no eps this year yet – which makes this recycled rubbish all the more annoying.
Maybe I’m missing something, but since when did promises of projects that “would benefit “dozens” of electorates including marginal seats” amount to pork barrelling? Is the ALP only allowed to promise projects that don’t benefit any electorates? Or only projects that don’t benefit marginal seats? Lift your game, Malcolm.
“Malcolm Farr is a political journalist who has covered federal politics in Canberra since 1991, mainly for the Daily Telegraph and news.com.au.”
Clearly.
The Nine media attack from Crowe and Coorey obviously came direct from the PMO. I didn’t expect the same drivel from Crikey. You need to show more respect for your audience.