Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our Prime Minister doesn't like to take responsibility. We saw it with the bushfires, we saw it with Brittany Higgins, and we've seen it with his ducking and weaving over ministerial scandals. Of course, the ultimate failure, impacting every single Australian, is the complete and utter failure of the vaccine rollout and provision of national quarantine. But, amongst all these failures, there is one area where the Prime Minister is truly excelling, one area where he is top of the class, and that is in his ability to hide money in the budget and then spend it for political purposes.

It started when Mr Morrison was the Minister for Social Services, in 2015. It was when he was Treasurer that the number of funds and discretionary grant programs exploded. But it is as Prime Minister that he has been truly able to hone his craft. Since the 2014 budget, this government has created more than 150 funds, totalling almost $70 billion in public money. They are multibillion dollar slush funds set up and then topped up again and again as the money rolls into the only electorates this Prime Minister cares about. Here's how he does it, how he rorts public money in broad daylight, without shame or consequence. Step 1: appropriate money by promising it's there for all Australians. Step 2: make sure there are no pesky guidelines, applications or expressions of interest attached to the money. Step 3: restrict access to the money to government members, particularly those in marginal seats; use spreadsheets, maps and the electoral pendulum to carve up the dollars, and agree it between the Prime Minister and the minister's office. Step 4: make the minister the decision-maker, to protect the Prime Minister, and then—step 5—have the Prime Minister, in return, protect the minister. What a tidy little arrangement for the Liberal Party! Australian people foot the bill, the vast majority of Australians never see a cent, and the Liberal Party get to raid the Australian government budget as though it's a fundraising machine.

My message to the Prime Minister is: we know what you're doing, and more and more Australians are cottoning on to it too. Some call it corruption, some call it a rort and others call it pork-barrelling, but it's business as usual for this government. (Time expired)