Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to speak about these appropriation bills, I have a few comments to make with regard to the shameless pork-barrelling that this government has undertaken. It is, quite frankly, embarrassing what this government has done. This government has very clearly made a range of election promises, some of which have been funded in this budget but most of which it is clearly trying to hide not only from the Senate but also from the accountability and scrutiny of the Australian people.

Why do I say this? Let me take you back a few steps. It is a painful and excruciating story about a government that is clearly trying to hide something. It is time for the Labor Party to come clean about what they promised and with delivery on their promises to this place. But, no, they will not do that; they will not fess up that they have rolled out the biggest pork barrel in the history of this country. They will not fess up to that; they will not fess up that the prince of pork is now the Prime Minister of this country, who has bought his way into an election.

Let me begin. On 16 March the Minister for Youth and Sport, Ms Kate Ellis, went on a television show called Offsiders boasting that over 100 election commitments had been made to upgrade community sporting facilities by the Labor government. A boastful claim. Very proud of that was Ms Ellis on the Offsiders program. So, on 17 March, because I was interested in what these election promises were, I approached the Senate leader, Senator Evans, to let him know that the following day I was going to request some further information on this material. On 18 March, I asked a question without notice in this place. Although I say it was without notice, I had been through the courtesy to notify Senator Evans, who assured me of his full cooperation.

The end of this process was that, despite repeated assurances and email conversations and promises from Senator Evans’s office that they were waiting for the minister to get back to them, on 13 May I was advised that the answer to my question would be tabled the following day. So what did we receive? My request, remember, was about the more than 100 sports projects. I wanted to know what they were, when they were announced and in what electorates they were based. I received a list of 15; only 15. But I did receive an acknowledgement that over $100 million was committed by the Labor Party during the election campaign for these commitments. My question, a very reasonable question, one that any regular person would ask is: why provide only 15 if you have promised over 100? Surely, you must have a list of them—but apparently not, because there were only 15 identified.

When the budget came out $20 million was identified and it had a line item for 91 projects. Of those 91 projects, only five were clearly identified in the budget papers. What about the other 86? Why won’t the Labor Party come clean with this? We had a lot of deceptive answers, a lot of misleading suggestions, that these things were going to be rolled out over time and would become apparent. Why won’t they table them now? The stench of rotting pork barrel is overpowering. Minister Ellis is the hapless fall guy for these grubby promises they made during an election campaign in the hope of snaring an election win, and they did snare an election win. Not many people in this place would be stronger supporters of sport and more committed to seeing a great sporting future for this country and great participation than me, with the possible exception of Senator Kemp. But the simple fact is: the Labor Party are not coming clean on very straightforward questions.

We have been told there are over $100 million worth of commitments, but they have only identified 15 of them so far. On 16 June, only last week, quite extraordinarily, Minister Ellis told the House of Representatives Main Committee that she is:

… tremendously proud that we have delivered upon these commitments …

What commitments? She does not even know what they are. If she does know what they are, she will not tell anyone. It is a snow job on the Australian public, showing a great deal of contempt for processes and the accountability that Mr Rudd so strongly promised. Minister Ellis is tremendously proud that she has delivered upon all of her commitments, even though she does not know what they are. These are the same commitments that she is unable or unwilling to provide. She also said:

All of this funding came up after local communities, advocates or representatives made the case for new facilities or facility upgrades in different areas.

Well, I have evidence to the contrary. I have had any number of people contact me saying, ‘We didn’t know anything about it and our club’s been given a whole chunk of money.’ It has not gone through the normal scrutiny and the normal process. The pork barrel has been rolled out in marginal electorates, promises have been made, and yet now the Labor Party does not want to fess up and tell us what they are.

On 17 June, after reading about how Minister Ellis promised she had delivered on all her commitments, I moved a motion in this place asking for a list of commitments made by the government during the election period, with their recipients, locations and amounts, because Minister Ellis had told us she had delivered on them all. What a furphy that was—an absolutely furphy. The due date for the tabling of the document was today. We received it today. It was tabled before 5 pm, as requested. What did we receive—can you imagine? We expected a list of 100 commitments, at the very least. The minister had told us she had delivered on all her election commitments and there were more than 100 of them. Unfortunately, we only received a list of 35. These included the 15 that we had had before, so we received an announcement of 20 new commitments—20 out of over 100.

Just how sloppy are the government? Just how untidy are they? We know who is running the government: it is the two juniors in Mr Rudd’s office, dictating what the ministers do. We have read about that in the paper. How untidy and sloppy are they? Let me tell you how bad they are. In the list of commitments that we were given today, we were told that the contribution for the Penrith Valley sports hub in New South Wales was $250,000—you signed your name to that, Senator Evans. And yet, strangely, in the budget papers—one of the few disclosures in there about this pork-barrelling—it says: ‘Penrith Valley sports hub contribution: $5 million.’ What happened to the $4.75 million?

This is the sloppiest work of a sloppy, untidy government. All members of it should be ashamed of themselves. I know that they are embarrassed. I can tell the embarrassment is creeping out, because I see them hang their heads. They put on a brave face on occasion, but this is very grubby senior level pork-barrelling. This is the largest pork barrel we have ever seen. This government do not even know what their election commitments are; they know they have made a lot of them. They cannot even produce an accurate list. After being requested by this Senate, they provide us with a snow job and a con job by saying that $250,000 was put into a project when they allocated $5 million in their budget. They cannot even get that right. How can the Australian people trust them with anything else? Where are the other 65 projects?

But it does not stop there; it gets worse. In the list that Senator Evans tabled in this place today through Senator Faulkner—it had your signature on it, Senator Evans—there was no mention of the Traralgon West Sports Complex, for which a grant worth $160,000 was announced on 20 June. They cannot even get that right. They are throwing money out and they cannot advise the Senate. There is something really smelly here. The stench is overwhelming. There is clearly something that the government are trying to hide. But we keep digging because we know that there is more to find, and we will continue to dig; we will not let them off the hook, because the Australian people need to know just what are they allocating money to. They need to know and we deserve to know. You do not even know at this point. The government do not understand.

Despite hiding as much as they possibly can from the coalition and the Australian public, when Minister Ellis is pressed to provide an answer because a journalist is sniffing around because they can smell the stench of rotting pork barrel as well as anybody, a slightly more complete answer comes along. This is what a journalist was told—not the Senate, not any accountable body, but a journalist: 95 projects, valued at $46.8 million have been allocated through the Health and Ageing portfolio and a further 32 projects, valued at $71.6 million, through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. In total, there were 127 projects valued at $118.1 million. They also included—helpfully, of course—a further allocation of funds, before the election, which made a total of $167.8 million allocated for pork-barrelling. And they will not fess up where they are.

This sloppiness, this contempt, beggars belief. It is embarrassing for any government, and this is a government that went to an election saying, ‘We are going to be open and accountable. We are going to be delivering on our election promises, even though we do not exactly know what they are.’ I ask members of the government: why won’t you come clean? Are you so incompetent that you are unable to compile a simple list of election promises? I think you guys need to get the story straight, because the minister has said that you have delivered on your election commitments. But you are unable to provide a list of them. There is no proof about what is going to transpire here. This is clearly a government in disarray. It goes right to the very top, because we know that everything that happens in this government leads directly to the office of the prince of pork, Mr Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister himself. This is the largest pork barrel we have ever seen in the history of this country. It is an embarrassment and it is an indictment of the processes of this Senate.

When the budget of the entire sports system in this country is something over $240 million and a $167.8 million pork barrel is rolled out, with no accountability, without the government coming clean, it says that something is really wrong. Something is rotten in the burrow that is the Labor government. They have never been able to be good economic managers. They have never been about coming clean for the Australian people. One previous Labor Treasurer gave us the recession that we had to have. He said, ‘This is the budget that is going to bring home the bacon.’ Let me tell you: this is a budget that has more bacon, in the form of giant pork barrels, than any we have ever seen.