Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to. I am asked about grants in ministers' own electorates. Can I make it very clear that this government has made significant reforms to improve whole-of-government transparency and accountability in grants programs. We established the guidelines in 2009 and the reason we did so is that we knew about the Howard government's inappropriate allocation of grants that occurred during their period in government, when the allocation of grants was clearly skewed towards Liberal and Nationals seats. I do not think anyone who was an observer of politics or was involved in politics could forget the 'regional rorts' program—a program where grants funding was blatantly skewed—