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| Corruption in NSW |
Analysis by the Greens from freshly obtained documents shows that the
NSW Premier personally approved $141.8 million under the Stronger
Communities Fund to councils in coalition-held seats in the run up to
the March 2019 State Election.
This information was forced from the government by an order of the Upper House that required the production of key emails, approvals and documents relating to the Stronger Communities Fund. The motion was moved by Greens MP David Shoebridge.
The documents also reveal that the Deputy Premier approved $61.3 million in funds from June 2018 to June 2019 (with 2 small grants after the elections). There is no evidence of any merits based assessment of the various projects, with funding announcements being kept secret from councils and managed entirely by Coalition MPs.
The fund was originally limited to assisting newly merged councils following the Coalition’s disastrous forced amalgamation policy. However the guidelines were amended in June 2018 to allow money to be handed to any council that had been the subject of a successful or unsuccessful merger proposal. This opened the floodgates to allow payments up to $90 million to be made to councils in blue-ribbon electorates that were never even merged.
A staggering 80% of the funds were handed out to councils wholly in Coalition held electorates with only 2% of the money being provided to councils in electorates with non-government MPs.
The Upper Houses’ Public Accountability Committee has now launched an urgent inquiry into government grants schemes, to test their integrity and value for money with the Stronger Communities Fund squarely in its terms of reference.
Greens MP David Shoebridge said:
“We had to chase these details for months with the government refusing to tell the public who made the key decisions.
“We now know they fought so hard to hide the truth because it was the Premier that delivered the biggest part of the pork barrel.
“The fact that the guidelines were changed to let the Premier give $90 million to a council in the blue-ribbon seat of Hornsby is an insight into how loosely public money is being handled by this government.
“This is one of the largest grants schemes being abused for political outcomes, but it is far from alone. This is why we have commenced a comprehensive Parliamentary inquiry into grants rorts.
“It’s well past time that these secretive and unprincipled grants schemes were brought to an end.
“This is public money and it needs to be allocated based on quality assessment and need, not which government MP wants to deliver a local cash hand out,” Mr Shoebridge said.
This information was forced from the government by an order of the Upper House that required the production of key emails, approvals and documents relating to the Stronger Communities Fund. The motion was moved by Greens MP David Shoebridge.
The documents also reveal that the Deputy Premier approved $61.3 million in funds from June 2018 to June 2019 (with 2 small grants after the elections). There is no evidence of any merits based assessment of the various projects, with funding announcements being kept secret from councils and managed entirely by Coalition MPs.
The fund was originally limited to assisting newly merged councils following the Coalition’s disastrous forced amalgamation policy. However the guidelines were amended in June 2018 to allow money to be handed to any council that had been the subject of a successful or unsuccessful merger proposal. This opened the floodgates to allow payments up to $90 million to be made to councils in blue-ribbon electorates that were never even merged.
A staggering 80% of the funds were handed out to councils wholly in Coalition held electorates with only 2% of the money being provided to councils in electorates with non-government MPs.
The Upper Houses’ Public Accountability Committee has now launched an urgent inquiry into government grants schemes, to test their integrity and value for money with the Stronger Communities Fund squarely in its terms of reference.
Greens MP David Shoebridge said:
“We had to chase these details for months with the government refusing to tell the public who made the key decisions.
“We now know they fought so hard to hide the truth because it was the Premier that delivered the biggest part of the pork barrel.
“The fact that the guidelines were changed to let the Premier give $90 million to a council in the blue-ribbon seat of Hornsby is an insight into how loosely public money is being handled by this government.
“This is one of the largest grants schemes being abused for political outcomes, but it is far from alone. This is why we have commenced a comprehensive Parliamentary inquiry into grants rorts.
“It’s well past time that these secretive and unprincipled grants schemes were brought to an end.
“This is public money and it needs to be allocated based on quality assessment and need, not which government MP wants to deliver a local cash hand out,” Mr Shoebridge said.
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