Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Indi for bringing this motion before the chamber. The member has been an advocate for integrity in our political system since she first entered the parliament, and I was very pleased to work with the member on the Joint Select Committee on National Anti-Corruption Commission Legislation. We can, as a parliament, be proud that the NACC now exists.

I, too, acknowledge the good that can flow from the application of Commonwealth grants for our community and sporting groups, businesses, local governments and not-for-profits. In Hasluck, as I stand here speaking on this, there are a number of very worthy groups waiting patiently to hear whether they've been successful in their applications for the community volunteer grants. Grants should be allocated both fairly and transparently. It is certainly correct that this did not apply to all the grant allocations under the previous coalition government.

Over a year ago now, the National Audit Office reported on the coalition's Building Better Regions Fund and found evidence of significant rorting. It was a $1.15 billion fund, and Australians who simply had the wrong postcode had a much smaller chance of succeeding in an application. Liberal and National held seats were unfairly favoured. Then there was the commuter car park program, which was the subject of a scathing assessment by the National Audit Office, which found that the infrastructure department had selected exactly none of the 47 sites and described the coalition's process as a non-competitive, non-application based process that was not demonstrably merit based. Not only were many of the car parks not needed but some of them were going to be built on land already earmarked for other purposes. In the now electorate of my friend the member for Macnamara, the land was already allocated for public housing, which demonstrates not only the coalition's poor planning and pork-barrelling but also their lack of commitment to public housing, which was further demonstrated by their failure to vote for the Housing Australia Future Fund. The voting public should be reminded of this chicanery by the coalition on a regular basis. It wasn't $660 million from the sky; it was hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars being sprayed up against the wall of a car park.

Likewise, the coalition's community sport infrastructure grants were simply an attempt to bolster the chances of the Liberals and Nationals hanging on to marginal seats. The member for Cook's webpage still encourages people to apply for this grant today. In June this year, the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit found that the coalition's grant processes across a number of schemes involved unjustifiably partisan outcomes, with ministers' decisions simply not recorded, inadequate or unavailable. Until we have seen a wholesale turnover of coalition members, we shall keep reminding voters that the member for Cook, the member for Dickson, Senator McKenzie and others were responsible for this serial travesty.

It is unfortunate that the member for Indi refers to the Albanese government's community battery program alongside these other programs in this motion. In addition to the fact that it's an excellent pledge made from opposition and in addition to the fact that the initial distribution of the 50 batteries appears to be very even, the member for Indi knows that all prospective applicants for the hundreds of community batteries still to be rolled out will be dealt with at arm's length by ARENA, which is, as far as I can tell, exactly what the member for Indi wants. So too is the government's Growing Regions Program, the guidelines for which were announced in May this year, evidence of the government's commitment to fairness and transparency. The guidelines include the introduction of a multiparty parliamentary panel—the panel will recommend only projects that meet regional priorities—and an external probity adviser, who will provide advice to the multiparty parliamentary panel.

Back home in Hasluck, I've created a local grants committee of people independent of me and my party to make recommendations for community grants. A few of the grant recipients have included: the Perth Observatory Volunteer Group, who run out of the Perth Observatory in Bickley and have received funding for first-aid training and a defibrillator; the Parkerville Playgroup, who have received funding for their play equipment, shade sails, benches and a range of equipment to help them maintain their gorgeous building and excellent services, and I look forward to seeing them on Friday; and Trillion Trees in Hazelmere, who have received funding for misting fans to support their volunteers taking care of their nursery of plants in Perth's hot summer weather. Trillion Trees plants native trees all over Hasluck and Perth.

Integrity is basic to the work we do here. I thank the member for Indi for raising this important matter, and I commend the work done by the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, chaired by my friend the member for Bruce. I'm aware that the government is considering the recommendations of that committee's report and I look forward to being part of the parliament to see it implemented in due course.

See this speech in context