Federal Independent member for Indi, Helen Haines is asking the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) to investigate election commitments made by the Labor Party in 2022, amounting to $1.35 billion through two invitation-only grant funds. 

Dr Haines said that during the last election campaign, the Australian Labor Party made 435 commitments to fund projects, with 86.8 percent of seats that Labor won or held at the election receiving a grant through the programs. Only 51.7% of non-Labor seats received a grant. 

Once Labor formed Government, it directed the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts to set up two grant programs – Investing in Our Communities Program and the Priority Community Infrastructure Program, allocating almost $1.35 billion to these programs in their October 2022 budget. 

Freedom of Information requests show the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government asked the Department to undertake a desktop review for project merits after coming to Government, long after the spending commitments were made. 

Dr Haines pointed to the program guidelines as a point of concern, noting they were ‘one-off, closed, non-competitive programs’, with the eligibility restricted to those ‘invited to deliver a project identified by the Australian Government’.  

“The government had an ‘invite-only’ list of organisations that could apply through these two programs, mostly projects that were already promised by Labor as election commitments,” Dr Haines said. 

“When you put all of the information together – who received a grant, the application process, and the assessment process – we have to ask, does the process for determining recipients under these programs seem rigorous, objective, fair, equitable and responsible? Or is this just another example of pork barrelling?”  

Dr Haines said she had met with the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King to lay out her concerns in a meeting in October, advising the Minister she would be making a referral to the audit office. 

“I met with the Minister to outline my concerns and personally advise her that I would be writing to the ANAO to ask them to investigate the programs and the actions and decisions of the Government.” 

“The ANAO is the auditor for public spending – it makes sure that when the Government spends taxpayer money, it stacks up. And I want to know if these election commitment programs stack up.” 

Dr Haines said that any assertion by the government that ‘the election is the selection’ goes to the heart of the problem of pork barrelling and called on the Parliament to take firm action to end the practice. 

“Whether a sports rort, a carpark rort, or an invitation-only infrastructure grant, both major parties continue to use public funds to target electors for partisan political purposes,” Dr Haines said. 

“The spending of taxpayer money should always be done fairly and transparently, with proper guidelines and selection criteria and awarded to recipients who objectively demonstrate merit.”  

According to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, the allocation of public funds and resources to targeted electors for partisan political purposes constitutes pork barrelling. 

According to the Australia Institute, more than 80% of Australians view pork barrelling as a form of corruption. 

“This is a flaw of Australian democracy and needs to change,” Dr Haines said. 

“What makes the practices under these two programs even more galling is the contrast when looking at the only two regional infrastructure grant programs available for the rest of Australia to apply for – the Growing Regions Program and the regional Partnership and Precincts Program, which share in $1 billion in funding. 

“It is more than two years since they were budgeted and we are only just now seeing money getting out the door for these two programs.” 

Dr Haines revealed she had made the referral to the ANAO while re-introducing her Bill to end pork barrelling.

Dr Haines speech and the Bill can be read here.

A copy of Dr Haines letter to the ANAO is here.

ENDS