Gladys Berejiklian ‘directed slush fund cash’

Gladys Berejiklian had direct involvement in the administration of a $252m grants program branded a ‘slush fund’.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian shows the strain of trying to duck yet another scandal on Thursday. Picture: Dylan Coker

Gladys Berejiklian had direct involvement in the administration of a controversial $252m grants program that has been branded a “slush fund” designed to win votes ahead of the 2019 state election, according to documents that contradict her claim to have had little to do with the approval process.

The NSW Premier drew more criticism on Thursday following a press conference in which she ­accepted her government had ­deployed “pork barrelling” tactics to secure votes, saying it was “not ­illegal” to do so and was conducted across the political divide.

Newly released documents recovered through a forensic examination process have shed further light on how the Premier’s office managed the Stronger Communities Fund program and short-­listed projects for Ms Berejiklian to sign off for approval.

Ms Berejiklian has consistently denied involvement in this process, saying she was merely consulted along with other MPs. She said on Thursday the transmission of funding was facilitated by the Office of Local Government.

The Stronger Communities Fund was initiated to assist council mergers and the associated costs they faced. This was later ­expanded to also include councils that required funding for projects that could demonstrate a “social and/or economic” benefit to the community.

Briefing notes outlining spending deliberations do not contain the Premier’s signature but leave space for her sign-off, which opponents seized upon to say that she held direct oversight of the fund’s priorities.

One email written by the Premier’s senior policy adviser, Sarah Lau, also states that she was awaiting a final list of projects ­relating to one Sydney council ­region in order to “give the full list to the Premier to sign off on”.

Questioned about the documents on Thursday, Ms Berejiklian conceded that Coalition seats had benefited disproportionately, but said this was in part because the Coalition held more seats.

The Liberal-National government holds a two-seat majority in the 93-seat Legislative Assembly.

“It’s not an illegal practice,” Ms Berejiklian said of the preferential funding. “Unfortunately, it does happen from time to time by every government. I think all governments, and all oppositions, make commitments to the community to curry favour. I think that’s part of the political process, whether you like it or not.”

In another document, another senior policy adviser, Matt Crocker, warned that prospective allocations for sporting fields and facilities in the Hornsby Council area were so disproportionate that they would amount to more than the spending on similar projects across “the rest of Sydney”.

“In terms of quantum, this package would be larger than our entire open spaces package — and we would be spending more on ­delivering sports fields and facilities in Hornsby than we are planning for the rest of Sydney over the next four years,” he wrote.

The council ultimately received $90m instead of its claim for $279m-$295m, an amount that equated to a third of the total funding allocations available from the Stronger Communities Fund.

“If the accusation is that the government favoured certain areas, well that’s an accusation we’ll wear,” Ms Berejiklian said, adding: “Yes, more of them (the grants) went to Coalition seats. But guess what, there are more Coalition seats.”

Efforts to secure the documents have been months in the making, involving calls for papers in the upper house to establish who approved the spending, and inquiry hearings that have heard the paper records were shredded.

The government’s most senior upper house minister, Don Harwin, was suspended after being held in contempt for being unable to produce the paperwork.

On Wednesday night, a selection of recovered documents was provided to the NSW parliament in another difficult moment for Ms Berejiklian, who has already apologised this week for breaching her own health department’s COVID-19 isolation protocols.

Labor leader Jodi McKay said there was strong evidence that the Premier had a direct involvement in the approval of grants.

“She did approve those grants. And we know she approved them because government documents clearly show she did, and the evidence that has been given to the parliamentary inquiry into government grants clearly shows she did,” Ms McKay said.

“Pork barrelling is not ethical or normal behaviour. We should never accept it is normal,” she said.

Greens MP David Shoebridge said the Premier’s remarks were contemptuous of the people of NSW, and he accused her of “ducking and weaving all year, trying to avoid responsibility”.