Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is still 22 projects and $4.6 million: what a disgrace! Large numbers of grants were approved in the lead-up to and, worse, even during the election campaign. The member for Wide Bay reminded us last week that the Regional Partnerships program was, to quote him, ‘an exceptionally popular program’. It was popular indeed amongst his National Party mates, who had been in raptures to receive millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money in grants that were approved by ministers before formal applications were submitted. $1.2 million went to no less than eight projects in the member for Wide Bay’s electorate, and three of them were against departmental advice. So it is no wonder the local member felt very popular.

On 24 November 2007 the Australian public said no to a government that was willing to spend taxpayers’ money on anything that would buy a vote. The previous government’s spending had been growing at an unsustainable rate, and Australian taxpayers had paid for it in no less than 10 consecutive rate rises. There were no less than six consecutive rate rises during the last term of the Howard government.

For the benefit of the senators opposite, I would like to take the opportunity to quote some recommendations from the Auditor’s report that I find absolutely amazing—and I use the term ‘amazing’ very loosely. Recommendation No. 1 is about the application and assessment and approval process:

ANAO recommends that, in the design and implementation of discretionary grants programmes, the Department of Transport and Regional Services further strengthen its administrative processes, and provide relevant advice to responsible Ministers in relation to:

(a) the statutory obligations relating to the approval and payment of grants arising under the applicable financial management legislation; and

(b) options for implementing administrative arrangements that satisfy programme policy objectives while ensuring the efficient and effective compliance with all applicable statutory obligations.

Ministers did not know, or just did not care, about accountability in spending taxpayers’ money. I find it absurd that we have to have recommendations in writing to tell ministers of their responsibility. Recommendation No. 2 from the report was:

ANAO recommends that, as part of its responsibilities for developing and maintaining the Commonwealth’s financial framework, the Department of Finance and Administration assess the merits of proposing amendments to the FMA Regulations that would have the effect of requiring approvers to document the basis on which the approver is satisfied that the proposed expenditure:

(a) represents efficient and effective use of the public money; and

(b) is in accordance with the relevant policies of the Commonwealth.

I mentioned the word ‘approvers’. The approver happened to be the minister. This recommendation would not have been needed if the minister and the government were not totally committed to use this program for blatant pork-barrelling. There are another 18 recommendations in this damning 121-page, three-volume report.

I want to take this opportunity to highlight a couple of facts about the regional rorts program. Despite the maladministration in the lead-up to the 2004 election being exposed by the media, when re-elected the coalition continued to betray the trust of the Australian people. Projects were funded, despite no application for funding being received, and ministers approved funding that did not even meet the funding criteria. Ten electorates that received the most funding were all held by the coalition. They were all coalition seats—isn’t that amazing?

Of 43 projects that were approved—despite the department not recommending them—38 were in coalition seats. This is pork-barrelling to the max. You may find this hard to believe, but it is all there in the report: in a 51-minute—not 51-week, not 51-month but 51-minute—spending spree in the hours before the government went into caretaker mode in 2004, the parliamentary secretary responsible for the program, Mrs De-Anne Kelly, approved 16 grants worth over $3.3 million. In 51 minutes! My wife can do a lot of damage with my credit card at Myer in 51 minutes, but even she could not spend $3.3 million.