Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

We had sports rorts Nos 1 and 2, we had the commuter car parks, we had the community safety grants and now we have the program to fund community health and regional hospitals. These were all special deliveries from the former Morrison government. The ANAO was absolutely scathing in its assessment. It found that the Department of Health and Aged Care's administration of the Community Health and Hospitals Program was 'ineffective and fell short of ethical requirements'. The department's management of the program was described as:

… undermined by deliberate breaches of the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines and failure to advise government where there was no legislative authority for grant expenditure … Executive oversight, risk and fraud management were deficient.

Perhaps the most egregious example was the gifting of $4 million to the Esther Foundation, a religious rehab centre and a pet project of former prime minister Mr Morrison. This is a centre that has been widely reported to have inflicted religious abuse on vulnerable young women and has since been put into voluntary administration amid ongoing allegations.

Funding that institution was not a decision taken in the public interest. The quality assurance from the department on the Esther Foundation project proposal said that it was suitable and provided value for money; however, the assessor did not undertake a financial viability assessment or get any audited financial statements. They simply copied the 100-word commentary from the Esther Foundation media profile and an activity plan the foundation had only provided when asked by the department. That activity work plan included a bulk spend on things not covered by the grant guidelines or objectives and a bunch of things that were ineligible. So this was not only not a good decision but an indefensible awarding of public funds. I'm having deja vu—another pre-election grants program and another damning report from the ANAO about decisions made to prop up the political fortunes of the then government rather than to meet community needs. Scandal after scandal—it's the same old story.

People who make the effort to seek government funding expecting a robust, rigorous and merits based approach are rightly outraged when grants are directed not to the best organisation but to the best-connected organisation. We are desperately in need of a change of approach to ensure that the community can have confidence that public money is going where it is most needed—judged by the community's need for support and not a politician's desire for re-election.

The Greens want to clean up politics from the ground up. We want the National Anti-Corruption Commission to be able to examine allegations of pork-barrelling. It is a misuse of public funds and an issue of integrity. We also want to remove the culture that makes governments and public servants feel like they can get away with it in the first place. We need strong, clear grants guidelines. We need to rebuild the Australian Public Service. We need strong and enforceable codes of conduct that hold politicians accountable for any conflicts of interest affecting their decisions. We need to continue funding the ANAO to call out poor conduct and we need departments that respond to those reports by lifting their standards.

Throughout the JSCEM inquiry into the 2022 election we heard about the advantages that incumbents have over new candidates. The opportunity to use public funds as sweeteners in the lead-up to an election is just one of those advantages, and it will continue to tip the playing field in favour of the government until pork-barrelling is prevented. We've had nearly a decade of this kind of behaviour, and the community is sick of it. The Albanese government needs to make a clear commitment not to follow the same path. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.