Keith Pitt defends scheme that put $49m into Wide Bay and Hinkler

A scathing report into a $1.38billion Federal fund revealed the program delivered a disproportionate amount of money to National Party held seats such as Wide Bay and Hinkler. Read where the money went:

Hinkler LNP MP Keith Pitt has defended a scheme at the centre of a scathing report by the national auditor which found it “favoured” the National Party and lacked transparency.

An Australian National Audit Office report into the $1.38bn Building Better Regions Fund established in 2016 revealed the program had ultimately delivered a disproportionate amount of funding to National Party held seats.

In the five rounds awarded since the scheme’s inception, a total of 41 projects across Hinkler and the Wide Bay received more than $49m in funding.

These two seats have been held by National Party MPs, Mr Pitt and Llew O’Brien, since the scheme was started.

The biggest among these were $9.1m to redevelop the Hervey Bay Airport, $7.4m for stage two of Bundaberg’s Indigenous Welfare Centre, $6m for a Marine Industry Site at the Port of Bundaberg, and $5m to redevelop Bundaberg’s Anzac Park.

Hinkler MP Keith Pitt has defended a scheme which the national auditor found “favoured” seats held by National party members including Wide Bay (held by Llew O’Brien) despite many of the projects not being the most meritorious of the applications.

Wide Bay projects to be funded under the scheme included $1.5m to upgrade Upper Mary St in Gympie, $2.5m for the third stage of Rufous St Masterplan Development at Peregian Beach, and more than $140,000 to install new lighting at the Gympie Showgrounds.

The funding accounted for almost 43 per cent of the total $114.4m price tag those projects carried.

The program has come under fire from the Labor Party in the past as being nothing more than a vehicle for pork barrelling.

The ANAO report, released in late July 2022, found the program, which was delivered in two funding streams, fell short in several areas.

The office found the funding “favoured” electoral seats held by the National Party, which received $104m more funding across the awarded rounds than those seats would have had the merit results been relied upon.

The Port of Bundaberg.

The Infrastructure Program stream had the worst problems of the two.

Almost two-thirds of the projects funded under it “were not those assessed as being the most meritorious”.

It does not detail which of the funded projects this applied to.

Those awarded under the Community Investment stream were most consistently approved according to their merit.

Transparency was an issue as well.

“Appropriate records were not made of the decision-making process,” the report said.

Gympie’s Upper Mary St upgrades were awarded $1.5m under the Building Better Regions Fund, which was given a scathing assessment by the national auditor.

In a statement to NewsCorp on August 1, 2022, Mr Pitt, who was a member of the BBRF’s ministerial panel for round two, defended the how the scheme was administered and the projects it funded.

“These are decisions made by the relevant minister and the cabinet at the time,” Mr Pitt said.

“The joint Royal Flying Doctor Service and LifeFlight base in Bundaberg was funded through the Building Better Regions Fund and provides an invaluable service to a substantial area across the Wide Bay-Burnett, and further afield,” Mr Pitt said.

“The Labor Government is saying this project wasn’t worthy and shouldn’t have been funded.

“I look forward to Labor explaining that to regional Australia for whom the RFDS literally is a life saver. ”

Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien was also contacted for comment.