Michael Pascoe says spending on the government’s Community Development Grants program has increased this year. Photo: AAP/TND
The federal government has boosted its core $2.5 billion political slush fund with identifiable investment in the Community Development Grants program over the first nine months of this year already nine per cent higher than all of 2019’s election-inflated CDG rorting.
And the $311.5 million of CDG spending published on the government’s GrantsConnect site so far doesn’t include the $23 million that featured in Pauline Hanson’s novelty cheque for a north Queensland rugby league stadium earlier this month.
The seventh year of the Coalition’s purpose-built CDG scheme follows the same MO as the preceding six and the Morrison/McKenzie #sportsrorts scandal – an overwhelming bias towards Coalition electorates and other “seats of interest”.
Scott Morrison and his government, minus Bridget McKenzie, continue to target grants towards Coalition electorates and other “seats of interest”. Photo: AAP
Spreadsheet sleuth Vince O’Grady has crunched the numbers declared on the GrantConnect site.
His colour-coded Excel document shows:
Western Australia, led by Premier Mark McGowan, received only 5.5 per cent of grants. Photo: AAP
Dave Sharma won back the seat of Wentworth from independent Kerryn Phelps. The seat received $18.9 million. Photo: AAP.
There is no surprise in the CDG scheme continuing to be used as a political slush fund – that is what it was specifically designed to be.
A body can only apply for a grant if the government invites it to do so.
The identification process is not left to public servants who might suffer from a lack of political bias – it is done by government members and their political appointments.
It is fundamentally corrupt.
The danger with the looming budget’s stimulus spending is that many billions more will be funnelled through the CDG racket.
If the government continues to run to its form with grant rorting, what we’ve seen so far might end up as chicken feed.