Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I can understand why Senator McKenzie, of all people, gets a bit toey when we talk about rorts in this chamber because, of course, we have had sports rorts, where almost half the projects that were funded were actually ineligible for funding until they had the colour coded spreadsheet that emerged out of Senator McKenzie's office. We've got the car park rorts—$660 million of rorts—which the former government used simply to target their own marginal seats. And, while those opposite love to name-check regional communities, when it comes to funding them, the Auditor-General found that 27 per cent of regional grants awarded by the Commonwealth between 2018 and 2021 actually went to recipients from major cities. Remember the regional pool that just happened to be in North Sydney? That's how much they care about regions. They will rort till they die, and that's why they're out of government. (Time expired)