Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

but on the basis of rules that were not made clear to all applicants. This included, I'm sure members of the Liberal Party will be pleased to know, funnelling into National Party electorates, against recommendations from the department, $100 million that would have gone to Liberal Party seats. A lottery would have in fact been fairer.

We saw it with the Community Development Grants Program initially set up in 2013 to fund election commitments, as often happens. What we then saw was Pauline Hanson suddenly popping up with novelty cheques in Rockhampton and a state One Nation candidate in WA doing the same. We saw that. It was $3.2 billion of commitments, 1,400-plus commitments across the country, with no application rounds, no transparency, no assessment of grants.

We saw it with the Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream Program as well, when $150 million and 41 different projects were announced during the election, and only 21 actually went to female change rooms, including to one club that didn't actually have any women's teams playing. We saw it with the Regional Growth Fund. We saw it with the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program and the colour coded spreadsheets. We saw it with the Drought Communities Program. Time and time again, the National Party has used funds for its own political purposes.

We are cleaning up the mess left by the National Party, but it shows why they should never be in charge of these portfolios ever again. (Time expired)

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