Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am.
Speaker 1: The Albanese government has been accused of pork barreling after
Speaker 1: an analysis found almost ninety percent of seats that were
Speaker 1: held or won by Labor at the last election had
Speaker 1: received grants totaling one point three five billion dollars. Labour
Speaker 1: has defended the grants, saying they were campaign commitments that
Speaker 1: had to be met. Today Independent MP Helen Haynes on
Speaker 1: pork barreling by the major parties and how as we
Speaker 1: head to another election the Albanese government rates on accountability
Speaker 1: and integrity. It's Wednesday, November thirteen. Goodelling, Helen, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming on seven am.
Speaker 2: Hi Ruby, great to be with you.
Speaker 1: So you've done some analysis looking into the way the
Speaker 1: Infrastructure Department has spent some grant funds since the last election.
Speaker 1: To begin with, could you tell me a bit about
Speaker 1: why this is something that you wanted to look into.
Speaker 1: Where it began for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, when I was elected to parliament in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: a large part of my platform was around improving transparency
Speaker 3: and accountability in government, improving integrity and really sticking up
Speaker 3: for rural.
Speaker 2: And regional Australia.
Speaker 3: So for me, I'm always very conscious about where taxpayer
Speaker 3: dollars is being spent.
Speaker 2: And of course during the.
Speaker 3: Previous parliament we saw some significant pork barreling that was
Speaker 3: identified car park.
Speaker 2: Roots, sports ruts and the like.
Speaker 4: The Morrison government has been accused of pork barreling on
Speaker 4: a grand scale after it was field, almost two billion
Speaker 4: dollars in taxpayer funded grants was pushed into coalition electorates.
Speaker 5: Cabinet Minister Bridget mackenzie approved a thirty six thousand dollar
Speaker 5: taxpayer funded grant for a clay target shooting club in
Speaker 5: regional Victoria without publicly disclosing she was a member.
Speaker 6: It stinks more than a bucket of prawn heads that
Speaker 6: you left out on a hot day light today.
Speaker 3: So being an independent I am alive to this happening,
Speaker 3: irrespective of who's in government. So I had to look
Speaker 3: at what the Labor government promised during the election campaign
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two and followed the trail of where
Speaker 3: some of that election promise money went and so what
Speaker 3: did you discover? So I had a close look at
Speaker 3: two grant programs that went to sporting clubs various organizations
Speaker 3: to do things like improved swimming pools, build grand stands
Speaker 3: at show grounds, things like that. And these two programs
Speaker 3: are called the Investing in Our Community's Program and the
Speaker 3: second one is Priority Community Infrastructure Program. Now, the total
Speaker 3: amount of money that was in the budget for these
Speaker 3: programs amounts to one point three five billion dollars. That's
Speaker 3: a lot of money. And these two programs closed non competitive,
Speaker 3: invitation only and they were set up with the express
Speaker 3: purpose to deliver on promises made during an election campaign
Speaker 3: when Labor were in opposition. I found that almost ninety
Speaker 3: percent of seats that Labor won or held at the
Speaker 3: election and received a grant through these two invitation only,
Speaker 3: non competitive grant programs.
Speaker 2: Now, to me, that was a great big red flag
Speaker 2: around a.
Speaker 1: Pork barrel, right okay. And so you took these concerns
Speaker 1: to the Infrastructure Minister, to Catherine King. Can you tell
Speaker 1: me about that?
Speaker 3: So I went to her and said, I have a
Speaker 3: real concern about these two programs. And in contrast to
Speaker 3: the one point three five billion dollars for the non
Speaker 3: competitive grants for these election promises, we had less money
Speaker 3: allocated across rule and regional Australia for competitive grant programs.
Speaker 3: I take the view that the New South Wales IKAC
Speaker 3: made that when public funds and resources are targeted to
Speaker 3: electors for partisan purposes, that's pork barreling.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: What did she say back to you about that?
Speaker 3: Well, the Minister and I have a fundamental disagreement about this.
Speaker 3: I think all major party senior people believe that it
Speaker 3: is absolutely reasonable and fine, and this is just the
Speaker 3: way business is done during election campaign that oppositions and
Speaker 3: governments go out and make promises. So the Minister and
Speaker 3: I have a different view of this. So that's how
Speaker 3: the meeting went. And I then let the Minister know,
Speaker 3: given that there was no other explanation than that these
Speaker 3: were promises made during election campaign, that I would be
Speaker 3: referring these two programs to.
Speaker 2: The Order to General.
Speaker 3: It's ultimately up to the Order to General to decide
Speaker 3: whether there is time in their work schedule to take
Speaker 3: a look at this.
Speaker 1: Right, and this issue, the issue of how grant money
Speaker 1: is allocated and whether it's done so in a fair way,
Speaker 1: it's not you, So can you tell me about how
Speaker 1: you've witnessed this in your own electorate over the years,
Speaker 1: as major parties have attempted to try and win it back.
Speaker 3: When I ran in twenty nineteen, there was Prime ministerial visits.
Speaker 2: There were promises of all sorts of.
Speaker 3: Infrastructure, and one was on our major highway, was to
Speaker 3: create an overpass in a difficult intersection. The McCoy Street
Speaker 3: intersection has long been described as a death trap.
Speaker 2: Fifty trucks a day go through the intersection.
Speaker 3: David Byrne has witnessed several near misses. There was significant
Speaker 3: federal funds promised by the then Morrison government and ultimately
Speaker 3: that project didn't continue During the subsequent government. I kept
Speaker 3: pushing for that money to be delivered, but it couldn't
Speaker 3: be delivered because the planning wasn't done, there wasn't the
Speaker 3: matching funds from the state government, and ultimately, when the
Speaker 3: Albanezy government formed in twenty twenty two, that particular project
Speaker 3: under Minister King's audit was found to not be able
Speaker 3: to be fulfilled.
Speaker 7: The notoriously dangerous intersection is one of fifty projects on
Speaker 7: the chopping block.
Speaker 6: The council already slammed by truckies and politicians alike.
Speaker 3: And there were many projects not just in my Electric
Speaker 3: but across Australia that fell into that category. So when
Speaker 3: projects are promised without complete and careful planning, they often
Speaker 3: delayed or fall over or have insufficient funds.
Speaker 2: You know, ultimately, communities don't always win from this.
Speaker 3: In fact, you know there are plenty of examples where
Speaker 3: ultimately they lose from this. I think it's a really
Speaker 3: a grgeous practice and I don't think it should continue,
Speaker 3: and I'll continue to call it out until such a
Speaker 3: time that we can stab it out. But I know
Speaker 3: that that's not a view held by the major parties
Speaker 3: ruby that's a view held by integrity experts such as
Speaker 3: the Center for Public Integrity, Accountability Roundtable and indeed New
Speaker 3: South Wales IYKAC. So that's where we are right now,
Speaker 3: and of course we're coming into election season again and
Speaker 3: it can be jolly sure that this will continue.
Speaker 2: To happen.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break the alb and Easy Government's
Speaker 1: looming integrity test helen. Integrity in government was a big
Speaker 1: issue in the last election. A lack of integrity was
Speaker 1: one of the reasons that the coalition ultimately lost power.
Speaker 1: So how do you think that this government, the Albanese
Speaker 1: government is going to be judged on that metric as
Speaker 1: people come out to vote again.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, you're absolutely right, you know, four points to
Speaker 3: the Albanesi government in the Nationality Corruption Commission being created. However,
Speaker 3: I think that this government gives less points from me.
Speaker 3: They have not fulfilled their promises around robusts whistleblower reform
Speaker 3: and I have very deep concerns about that. Right now,
Speaker 3: we have mister Richard Boyle, who is you know, a
Speaker 3: case exemplar of the failures and weaknesses of our whistle
Speaker 3: blowing laws.
Speaker 6: Today, former public servant Richard Boyle will face court in
Speaker 6: South Australia accused of doing just that, blowing the whistle
Speaker 6: on dodgy tax practice. Is that these former employer the
Speaker 6: Australian Tax Office. He'll be represented in court by Kieran Hinder.
Speaker 3: I think we've seen the impact of lobbyists and that's
Speaker 3: been playing out through the various concerns around QUANTUS in
Speaker 3: the past few weeks, in particular where we have almost
Speaker 3: unfettered lobbying happening across the Parliament. We don't know what
Speaker 3: happens behind ministerial doors when lobbyists are there. We don't
Speaker 3: have open and transparent ministerial.
Speaker 2: Diaries, for example.
Speaker 3: And I think perhaps the third element is also the
Speaker 3: jobs for mates, work that Sophis Komp's member for MPELLA
Speaker 3: has been undertaking.
Speaker 2: We cannot be confident that.
Speaker 3: Appointments to statutory boards and the likes are completely merit
Speaker 3: based and not influenced by political favors.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned the National Anti Corruption Commission that the
Speaker 1: Aberenezi government has put in place. You campaigned for its
Speaker 1: creation for many years. So the knack that we now have,
Speaker 1: how does it compare to what you had hoped to
Speaker 1: see established?
Speaker 3: Well, Ruby, you're right, we finally achieved passing that legislation gosh,
Speaker 3: about twenty months ago now, and to Labor Party's credit
Speaker 3: when they formed government under mister Albanesi, that was very
Speaker 3: high order of business and I was very happy to
Speaker 3: engage fulsomely in that process. I wanted some stronger transparency
Speaker 3: elements in that legislation than was ultimately achieved. But I
Speaker 3: certainly celebrated, as did many others, when we were able
Speaker 3: to stand up the very first federal Anti corruption Commission.
Speaker 2: So how's it gone?
Speaker 7: Since the National Anti Corruption Commission has ruled out further
Speaker 7: investigation into the public officials behind the disastrous robodebt scheme
Speaker 7: that saw hundreds of thousands of Australian families hounded for
Speaker 7: debts they didn't owe.
Speaker 2: Question.
Speaker 3: The Australian public very very disappointed about that and exercised
Speaker 3: their rights under the legislation to complain to the Inspector
Speaker 3: of the NAK.
Speaker 2: In my mind, the.
Speaker 3: Strong legislative authorities of the Inspector have played out in
Speaker 3: a way that is I think appropriate.
Speaker 8: Anti Corruption Commission says it will review its decision not
Speaker 8: to launch an investigation into the robodet scandal. A review
Speaker 8: of that decision has been released, claiming the watchdog's commissioner
Speaker 8: didn't properly deal with a perceived conflict of interest.
Speaker 3: There was a finding of misconduct, which subsequently has now
Speaker 3: led to an eminent person being appointed to reinvestigate whether
Speaker 3: Robota debt should be investigated by the KNACK.
Speaker 1: I mean, everything that you've outlined, to what extent do
Speaker 1: you think that they point to some fundamental problems? Do
Speaker 1: you think that there needs to be some sort of overhauls,
Speaker 1: sort of reform of the KNACK at this point?
Speaker 3: I think what this points to is a rocky start
Speaker 3: to the KNACK. I certainly wish that we hadn't had
Speaker 3: a finding of this type by the inspector so early
Speaker 3: on in the standing up of the KNACK. But I
Speaker 3: feel confident that the role of the inspector, the way
Speaker 3: the legislation is working, has demonstrated that the legislation is
Speaker 3: strong and that an inspector without fear or favor can
Speaker 3: come in and say, look, there's a problem here and
Speaker 3: it needs to be fixed. So I think that's good.
Speaker 3: I don't think the KNACK needs an overhaul, not at all.
Speaker 3: I think we now need to let this process player.
Speaker 3: The inspector's report has been tabled, there is an eminent
Speaker 3: person now delegated to relook at the decision on Robodette,
Speaker 3: And in fact, we have a public hearing the Oversight
Speaker 3: Committee of which I'm.
Speaker 2: Deputy chair Ruby.
Speaker 3: We have a public hearing ourselves with the KNACK on
Speaker 3: the twenty second of November, and we will be examining
Speaker 3: the first year and so there'll be opportunities to ask
Speaker 3: questions and I'll certainly be doing that.
Speaker 1: Helen, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 2: It's been a pleasure, Ruping. Thanks for the opportunity for
Speaker 2: a chat.
Speaker 1: In a statement, to the Saturday paper, a spokesperson for
Speaker 1: Minister King said that all projects underwent a rigorous merit
Speaker 1: assessment to confirm eligibility under the program guidelines and to
Speaker 1: determine value for taxpayers money. Any projects that did not
Speaker 1: satisfy these requirements were not approved for funding. Also in
Speaker 1: the news today, the federal government has earmarked up to
Speaker 1: eighty million dollars for the regional airline REX, which went
Speaker 1: into voluntary administration in July. The government says the funding
Speaker 1: will keep critical regional routes running, as well as pay
Speaker 1: entitlements for rex's former employees and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnia,
Speaker 1: who's office has confirmed the Prime Minister approved page or
Speaker 1: attacks against hes bolar in Lebanon. In September, thousands of
Speaker 1: pages used by hes boler members simultaneously exploded in Beirut
Speaker 1: and other areas, killing at least twelve and injuring one
Speaker 1: thousands more. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. See
Speaker 1: tomorrow