Welcome to this week’s editorial, The ICAC hearing around the $5.5million that was granted to the Wagga shooting range has been of interest to many in the South East. From time to time we have seen the Premier arrive in the region and make announcements of State infrastructure funding. Of delight was the $30 million for the completion of the Spine Road bypass of Batemans Bay and the commitment of funding for the Eurobodalla Regional Hospital. Both were on the cards, long overdue and welcome. But there was a joint announcement made in March 2018 in regards to $26 million for the new Batemans Bay pool and theatre that has raises some serious questions. The announced $26 million came from NSW Government’s $1.3 billion Regional Growth Fund that was under the control of the Minister for Regional NSW, The Hon John Barilaro, Deputy Premier. The $26 million grant was divided into $18 million for the pool and $8 million. The $8 million was sourced under a sub-pool for Regional Cultural Funding. What we now know is that the $8 million was pork-barrelled. It was awarded six months before applications were called and when scrutinised by an independent panel rated Number 72, well below more deserving grants such as the Bega Regional Gallery upgrade (Ranking #1) that missed out all together. In making the $8 million theatre announcement both the Premier and local Member MUST have known the details of the funding. The Deputy Premier and former Arts Minister Don Harwin were accused of pork-barreling after expert advice on where to spend the Regional Cultural Fund Grants was largely ignored. In the end an admission was made that there was “pork barrelling. So the Deputy Premier admits to pork-barrelling. And the New South Wales Premier even concedes that $140m in grants to councils that were approved in the nine months before the last state election amount to pork barrelling dismissing it by saying there was nothing illegal about it.
“It’s not something the community likes ... but it’s an accusation I will wear,” “It’s not unique to our government,”. “It’s not an illegal practice. Unfortunately it does happen from time to time by every government,” she said.
If we follow their rationale the pork barrelling is good for regional economies with John Barilaro saying “What we call pork-barrelling is investment,” “I dare you to turn up to these communities and tell them they don’t deserve these projects.”
But what if the gift horse turns out to be a donkey? We hear that the Wagga facility didn’t stack up with it’s business case. The Mackay Park project, by being fast tracked, didn’t have its business case scrutinised. Not at a State Level, or at a Federal Level which granted $25 million to the project ten days out from the announcement of a Federal election.
Like the Wagga Gun Club project our Bay Pavilion project was required to demonstrate a Cost Benefit Ratio above 1.0 in order to gain the grant. Because we were gifted the funding we will never know the result as we never lodged the required FULL business case. Our grants were gifted and the cheques may as well have been written on large replicas of bacon.
So who benefits from all of this? The community left with an unaffordable legacy or politicians vying for votes to ensure they remain in power? Will our humble Bay Pavilion porkiness be mentioned in ICAC . No. It will be business as usual and what we have come to expect, and accept.
Until next
lei
