Michael Pascoe On Liberal/National Party Rorting (Porkbarrelling)

Howdy dear availees...profoundest apologies and deepest embarrassments, just noticed that I haven't posted for over a week, but at first thought it was some more external shenanigans messin' with the blog...(you mean like those posts that have been made "Unavailable" by Google, and/or those several that have disappeared entirely from the 'Draft Section'?-Ed)...and those several dozen that have somehow been removed but are still in the 'Draft Section', yeah, all of that...fortunately, it looks like a much more mundane explanation this time, in that I think I did this post and then simply failed/forgot to actually post it...so apologies, but here we go now...just noticed in 'Statistics' that my post The Hillsong Is Alive With The Sound Of Politics has had dozens of views in the last coupla' days...(somethin' to do with the li'l illegal shindig the junior godbotherers have been having in New South Wales?-Ed)...I'd reckon so, and dear availees, just Interweb search it for further details...and it's particularly relevant when one considers that PM Scott 'Scummo' Morrison's arrogant, smirking incompetence with the COVID19 Vaccine and/or Rapid Antigen Tests debasco (debacle/fiasco)...(you mean the stuff where-in if ya' overlay Scummo's Pentecostal  'Rapture Theology' lunacy, it uncomfortably exactly explains why it looks like he's gleefully trying to destroy Australian society and kill-off the poor, disabled, elderly, etc, all that stuff?-Ed)...yeah, exactly that stuff...

This post is one of a few that are backing-up in 'Drafts', so I've dug it out and it's therefore slightly dated...here goes...it's from several months ago, but this is an absolutely relevant issue, as Mr Pascoe explains, 'cos the Nationals are currently refusing to engage with their Liberal partners, eg, the shizzle fight over reaching Net Zero Emissions...(and Nationals' leader Barnaby 'Beetrooter' Joyce has been openly saying 'so what?' when asked about the multiple issues/instances of pork-barrelling-Ed)...so here's Mr Pascoe's latest piece in what's become a series of articles about this Institutionalised Rorting...I think that he's actually updated/expanded this topic since, so here first is the link to him and The New Daily website, and then the direct link to this particular article...I urge dear availees to regularly read TND 'cos they have multiple excellent articles on numerous topics...

https://thenewdaily.com.au/author/michael-pascoe/   

https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2021/10/19/michael-pascoe-opportunity-cost-pork-barrelling/?fbclid=IwAR2uwuMqx8JeqMqCoLTNd-YBe2__5mgTDVjX3wZd7xLqXMvtFPJbtI1LNnY

A summary: 'When a government plucks, say, $660 million from the “#carpork” barrel in the shadows of an election for key seats, that is money that won’t be available for women’s shelters or child care or fair wages for aged-care workers.

..... Australia now is in the shadow of an almost unimaginable extortion racket – “tens of billions of dollars” for the National Party to agree to minimal carbon reduction promises Scott Morrison can take to Glasgow.

According to the Australian Financial Review, that’s the scale of the money on offer to get the Nationals’ Princes and Princesses of Pork across the climate change line.

“Sources said “tens of billions” were on the table,” reported Phillip Coorey.

“Infrastructure and communications would be the chief beneficiaries of any negotiation which, they noted, would also bolster the electoral prospects of regional Liberal MPs.”

Ah, “bolster the electoral prospects” – another euphemism. It means “vote buying”.

..... the suggested extra “tens of billions” would have to come out of other programs cut or forgone.

Round up the Coalition’s usual suspects – welfare, tertiary education, Medicare, social housing …

In the context of the current ICAC hearings that have come out of the Berejiklian government’s shamelessly political $250 million pre-election council grants, Democracy Matters director Sandy Killick reminded SMH readers:

“There is a real consequence of ministers using their discretion to divert millions of dollars to electorates of their choosing, over many years.

“The current NSW parliamentary inquiry into rural, regional and remote hospitals has been told that patients can’t be treated properly because morphine and paracetamol supplies run out.

“In November last year, midwives and senior obstetricians at Blacktown Hospital threatened to strike after a sixth baby died in two years in a maternity ward that is chronically understaffed. These things were happening before our valiant public health system was stretched by COVID-19, and it will need every dollar the state government can send its way.”

..... The Pork Party already has plenty of form ..... If Barnaby Joyce succeeds in getting $3 billion to extend the Inland Rail boondoggle to Gladstone to subsidise coal exports, that’s $3 billion that won’t be spent on solving genuine problems.

..... The money the Pork Party’s Senate leader gave to less-deserving clubs came at the expense of more-worthy projects ..... there seems to be the whiff of pork around every program the government touches, especially if the Nationals are closely involved.

Pork received a fresh airing last week with the breakdown of the Building Better Regions Fund Round Five winners – eligible Labor electorates disproportionately underfunded and some “interesting” grants. Anyone for pickleball?

..... Further information has come to light about Rounds Three and Four thanks to Freedom of Information documents uploaded to the Finance Department’s disclosure log.

The FOI requests deal with ministers making grant decisions that were not in keeping with their departments’ advice. It’s a rich trove.

In Round Three, 112 of 330 grants – 34 per cent – were chosen by McCormack’s ministerial panel against the department’s recommendations.

(And, true to form, only 12 per cent of the $197 million in the infrastructure stream went to Labor electorates.)

The department’s score improved a little in Round Four – “only” 30 per cent of grants were made against the department’s recommendations.

..... Was it necessary for the federal government to provide $85,363 for the Lorne Bowls Club to upgrade its green and surrounds in the seat of Corangamite? Sarah Henderson lost to Labor anyway.

Or $1.35 million to upgrade boat ramps for recreational fisherfolk in George Christensen’s Mackay?

Or $950,000 to build more units at Urunga’s Riverside Resort? (Pat Conaghan’s National seat of Cowper in NSW)

Or $800,000 towards stables for 60 horses at the Hunter Valley Equine Research Centre? The thoroughbred industry already does very well indeed out of governments – but this is in Barnaby Joyce’s electorate of New England.

And then there are the effective gifts for what are commercial enterprises. Sales yards, of “livestock exchanges”, are popular, picking up collective millions for upgrades while livestock prices soar.

The $400,000 for the Apple and Pear Growers of South Australia to subsidise their water pumping stations?

Or $2,250,000 towards 218 kilometres of the Murchison Region dog fence in WA, effectively a gift to 53 privately operating pastoral stations.' THENEWDAILY.COM.AUMichael Pascoe: The opportunity cost of the Pork Party – ‘tens of billions’

...so there you go...and as mentioned, there's been several extensions/expansions of this topic on TND...(and what about the current looming $16billion Rortfest?-Ed)...do tell...(well, it's been identified that Scummo and his merry band of psychotic rorters have stashed approx $16b for spraying onto the electorate during the approaching/current Federal Election campaign-Ed)...oh yay...(yeah, and Scummo doesn't appear to be denying it-Ed)...that's if the media bother to ask him...(and who can forget former Liberal arse-hat Alexander Downer's daughter last Federal Election when she was gallavanting about the seat of Mayo handing-out giant novelty cheques-Ed)...ah yeah, not actually a Member of Parliament, but doing multiple media stunt photo-op novelty cheque presentations as though she were, which is particularly relevant 'cos that's Taxpayer's money being dolled-out, Taxpayer's money being used by a candidate to self-promote via a woefully transparent round of pork-barrelling...

And of course there's the $15m that the Mt Gambier City Council received for the Farcical Aquatic Recreation Centre (FARC) at the initiative of Liberal Member for Barker Tony Pasin, courtesy of the Building Better Regions Fund, yet another pork-barrelling slushfest...you can bet your bottom dollar that that li'l fiscal disaster, now blown-out from '$39million' to a minimum $75m, will be front and centre of the Liberal's State and Federal Election campaigns this year...(are you sure? I mean, the FARC is an massive White Elephant shaped millstone for literally generations of Mt Gambier Ratepayers to come, are you sure that anyone is gunna' wanna' brag about how they're responsible for it?-Ed)...yeah sure, but that ain't gunna' stop Pasin et al praising themselves for organising the original 'grants'... 

I read with some optimism one of Mr Pascoe's recent articles, link attached below, where-in he covers the potential possibility that media pressure has forced the LNP's claw-like hand, and that funding percentages have massively shifted to a much more 50/50 scenario, as opposed to the previous 75/25 model...(but surely this apparent Fiscal Epiphany is also likely linked to the looming elections this year, and is similar to numerous other issues where Scummo and the LNP have suddenly announced funding for this and legilsation for that, etc, but it's clearly just superficial knee-jerk reactions to polling and the elections-Ed)...fair point Ed, and undoubtedly accurate, but I do choose to believe that it's been external pressure and/or exposure of this Rort Agenda that has forced this shift...(so if the pathetically complicit pro-LNP Main Stream Media and ABC, et al, if they had been allowed to just not cover/expose the Rorting, then said Rorting would have just continued unabated?-Ed)...which it still largely does, but yeah, I believe that this 'shift' is due to non-MSM like TND, Michael West Media, Kangaroo Court of Australia, Ronni Salt, and numerous others doing what the MSM flatly refuses to do...anyhoos, here's that link...   

https://thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2022/01/12/michael-pascoe-2021-community-grants-corruption/

So apologies again for the self-inflicted cock-up, and let's just move on shall we?...

Tomorrow: Just How Incompetent Is Mt Gambier City Council?

(Hmmm, a statement of fact asked as a question, interesting-Ed)...well sure, it's arguably one of the most rhetorical questions in all of recorded history, but let's have a good ol' swing at it anyways...from the Aquifer Tours/Crater Lakes fiasco, the Old Rail Station deceits, and the FARC disaster, where does incompetence become corruption?...(another rhetorical question?-Ed)...well it's the same ol' question isn't it, at what point does Institutionalised Incompetence mask Institutionalised Corruption...(and does one negate/discount/delete the other?-Ed)...indeed... 

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...