Looking at past Liberal Party of Australia political rorts may help to assess Scott Morrison's current election campaign promises which have a dollar amount attached when first announced and/or a specific electorate is included in the announcement.
So
what has all the Liberal Party's much touted "individual freedom and free enterprise" delivered since 2013?
Well
between 2013 and 2018 it appears to have delivered federal regional
grants totally $714,563,851. With 57.62% of this funding directed to
77 Coalition-held electorates and, the remaining 26.92% going to 74
other electorates - 68 ALP & 6 minor party/independent.
Some
electorates such as Hinkler (Qld) held by Nats-LNP since 1993
received well in excess of $26 million in regional grants. Mallee (Vic) held
by Nats since 1972 and Capricornia (Qld) held by LNP since 2013
received over $24 million each. While Dawson (Qld) held by LNP since 2010
received over $31 million - and on it went over
the approximately six year span.
Has
this brazenly partisan allocation of Treasury funds lessened under
the prime ministership of the Liberal MP for Cook?
Apparently
not, because the bulk of the billions listed in the next paragraph
were distributed on Morrison's watch.
According
to The
Sydney Morning Herald
on 16 April 2022, taxpayers
have funded $55.6 billion
in federal government
grants
over less than 4 years (including
a hefty $20
billion
last year) under rules that give ministers sweeping powers to decide
payments, often without any criteria or reporting & against
departmental advice. From
January
to March
this
year
another $1 billion
was distributed
as
grants.
So
where might some of those $55.6 billion dollars have found a home?
Nor
being a forensic accountant I am not up to the task of tracking that
down, but there are some clues to be found.
Take
the joint Federal-States Black
Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants Program.
The
“Black Summer” bushfire season actually ran from July 2019
through to early March 2020 and during this period est. 2.9 million adult
Australians had their property damaged, their property threatened, or
had to be evacuated, often along with their families.
This Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants Program funding pool held $390,893,779 –
with $296,746,274 allocated and $94,147,508 still unspent in February
2021.
Over 100 local government areas in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria were listed in the grant eligibility criteria.
A
total of 57.63% of all grant allocations worth est. $171,035,576 went
to Coalition electorates, 31.33% worth $92,994,495 to Labor
electorates and, 11.02% worth $32,716,230 to Independent/minor party
electorates.
In December 2020 it was revealed that one of Australia's richest men who happens to be a Liberal Party donor had received $10 million in bushfire recovery funding - to expand a paper mill not directly affected by fire.
In February 2022 the Morrison Government announced that the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Fund had received an additional $110 million for 524 "broad recovery projects" with unspecified recipients. The this grants program is now listed as closed.
Just
in case a reader might think that the nature of that 2019-2020 mega
bushfire season might have skewed funding allocations, here is
another example which clearly indicates bias.
Round
5 of the Building Better Regions Fund – Infrastructure Projects
Stream.
There
it is in glorious colour.
A
total of 73. 23% of this grant round, worth est. $215,281,617 going
to Coalition electorates and 26.76% worth
est. $78,678,728 going
to electorates held by Labor and the cross benches. Liberal
& LNP MPs receiving the bulk of this largesse held federal seats
in New South Wales and Queensland.
Then
there is the National Commuter
Car Park Fund.
The
Urban Congestion Fund (UCF) was established in the 2018–19 Budget.
Total funding for the UCF had grown from $1 billion to $4.8 billion
as at 31 March 2021.The National
Commuter Car Park Fund
is a component of the UCF.
This
is what commuter car park
funding
allocation looked like in February 2021.
A
total of 77
Liberal Party electorates received
a whopping
81.75% of
the
total funding pool worth $575,890,000. Among
the Liberal
Party luminaries lining up for the prime minister’s largesse were;
Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong Vic), Alan Tudge (Aston Vic), Tim
Wilson (Goldstein Vic), Michael Sukkar (Deakin Vic), Jason Wood (La Trobe Vic), Angus
Taylor (Hume
NSW), David Colman (Banks NSW), Stuart
Robert (Fadden Qld), Bert Van Manen (Forde Qld) Peter Dutton (Dickson Qld) and Andrew Hastie
(Canning WA).
In
June 2021 the Australian Auditor-General handed down a performance
report titled “Administration
of Commuter Car Park Projects within the Urban Congestion Fund”.
The
performance report found numerous
inadequacies, including:
The
department’s approach to identifying and selecting commuter car
park projects for funding commitment was not appropriate. It was not
designed to be open or transparent. The department did not engage
with state governments and councils, which increased the risk that
selected projects would not deliver the desired outcomes at the
expected cost to the Australian Government. Departmental advice did
not contain an assessment against the investment principles or
policy objectives and it was not demonstrated that projects were
selected on merit. The
distribution of projects selected reflected the geographic and
political profile of those given the opportunity by the government
to identify candidates for funding consideration;
and
By
2022 it was apparent that most of 47 commuter car parks which
had funding allocated were
no longer considered
active
proposals
and at least 5
proposed car parks appear
to have been scrubbed from the original
list
– 4
in Labor electorates and one in a Liberal Party electorate.
Lack of transparency, across the board poor record keeping, no apparent accountability for decisions made and politically partisan use of public money - are all indicators of corrupt processes in this particular grant fund.
This next chart demonstrates funding allocations for sports infrastructure.
A breakdown of full details can be found at:
https://www.thevogfiles.com/uploads/1/3/5/1/135189168/copy_of_sporting_grants5_1.xlsx
To say that voters are not happy with the Liberal Party is an understatement. This was one voter in the Australian Capital Territory......
“Firstly, the biggest misdirect, perhaps lie, perpetrated by the Liberals is that they are a Federal Political Party - a single administrative & policy unit like the ALP. They are a bunch of independent Fiefdoms, ruled in what looks like a Feudal system with a truly byzantine organisation…..
I’ve looked at the Liberal Federal Secretariat & "Liberal Party NSW" sites and they don’t publish any “Values”,
They publish some very rubbery & loose “Beliefs”. Untestable, and unaccountable motherhood statements. Summarised at the end as:
“In short, we believe in individual freedom and free enterprise"
Tony Abbott around 2013 clearly annunciated both Liberal Party Values & Purpose: “We are not Labor”.
Nobody in their right mind would invest in a company with the absence of proper Governance & Accountability embodied in the many “Liberal” party Fiefdoms in Australia, nor would they tolerate the absence of consistent Values, Priorities and Policies.” [Voter from Kippax, ACT, 3 March 2022]
SOURCES
The VOG Files, Rorts Central at:
Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) at:
Parliament of Australia, Members at:
