David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In December 2021 the now Prime Minister said:

Taxpayers deserve better than to have their funds funnelled into marginal electorates on the basis of a political whim.

But what did the Prime Minister do? He did exactly that in round 6 of the Mobile Black Spot Program, the notorious program under which the minister for communications directed that 74 per cent of funding go to Labor electorates, and in New South Wales and Victoria that 30 out of 30 grants be provided to Labor electorates. It is an absolute outrage, and the outrage is compounded by the fact that just in the last couple of weeks, in response to a Freedom of Information request about this extraordinarily inappropriate program, the minister's response was not to provide a limited number of documents but to provide not one document. It's a shameful disgrace and a very poor reflection on this minister. That decision has been appealed with the Information Commissioner. The Auditor-General says there is merit in a potential audit of this program, and I look forward to that being confirmed when he provides his work program in July, because this is an absolute scandal. The Prime Minister made very clear comments about this before the election—not providing funding on the basis of marginal seats—but that's exactly what he has done, and it is a disgrace.