00:01This was the major and local community infrastructure grant program, a $560 million program to fund
00:10Labor's election commitments at the 2025 federal election.
00:14It went to football club upgrades, tennis club upgrades, other sporting facilities,
00:19public parks and other community infrastructure projects.
00:24And those 220 grants or so that went out at election time, or I should say the promises
00:31and the grants followed later, have been looked over for the first time in detail by the Centre
00:37for Public Integrity.
00:39And the Centre has concluded they heavily favoured Labor.
00:43About three quarters of those grants going to notionally Labor-held seats heading into
00:49the 2025 federal election.
00:51And when you break it down by seat margin, an even more striking picture, about $493 million
00:58going to either safe, fairly safe or marginal Labor seats, those marginal seats where Labor
01:04was competitive.
01:06Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger, just $66 million going to seats that were not
01:12competitive for Labor.
01:13That might be a teal versus Liberal in a competitive marginal seat where Labor doesn't have a look
01:19in or a safe Liberal or national or other seat.
01:23A large disparity there that politicians in Parliament House and the Centre are questioning
01:30how it came about.
01:32The program was invitation only.
01:34There was no open competitive process to apply.
01:38And so MPs like Independent MP Helen Haynes are suggesting that calling it fulfilling election
01:44promises is just a euphemism.
01:46It's plain and simple pork-barrelling.
01:49The Centre for Public Integrity Chair, the former Justice Anthony Wheelie, says there is
01:54a serious question here for the government to answer about the process it used to identify
02:00those projects for funding.
02:02Is that prima facie, it looks like the misuse of public money or serious pork-barrelling,
02:09as it's sometimes called.
02:11That's what I think is the prima facie position.
02:14We don't know the process they've followed in achieving those consequences.
02:19That's what has to be explored.
02:21And I think there's a heavy onus on the government now to justify the process it has used.
02:26The Prime Minister didn't take a question on it when he held his press conference, but
02:31we have heard from others, including Assistant Treasurer Daniel Molino, defending the program,
02:37saying they were up front, it was election commitments, and they were transparent about
02:41those announcements, and the now-identified programs will go through a value-for-money assessment.
02:48Elsewhere, the Liberals are questioning the fairness of how this was allocated, considering
02:55that there wasn't an opportunity for 45 electorates to have any look-in at all.
02:59Zero invitations, zero funding awarded.
03:02Meanwhile, the Greens are suggesting that the Prime Minister needs to front a Joint Standing
03:07Committee on Electoral Matters, saying he has to explain the process that was used here,
03:12because otherwise the public will only be able to conclude that it probably was pork-barrelling.
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