Building Better Regions Fund grants ‘targeting marginals’
Almost 90 per cent of the latest round of the Morrison government’s $300 million Building Better Regions Fund went to Coalition-held or Labor marginal seats, an analysis reveals.
Almost 90 per cent of the latest round of the Morrison government’s $300m Building Better Regions Fund went to Coalition-held or marginal Labor electorates, a seat-by-seat analysis has revealed.
Announced on Friday, the fifth round of funding announced 298 projects would receive grants aimed at supporting economic and social infrastructure for the long-term benefit of regional communities.
Analysis by Labor reveals the funding was heavily skewed towards Liberal and National seats, with Labor-held seats receiving only 16 per cent of the funding, despite holding 34 per cent of regional seats eligible for BBRF funding.
In comparison, while holding 60 per cent of eligible seats, Liberal and Nationals-held electorates received almost 73 per cent of the funding,
When including marginal Labor seats – held on a margin of 5 per cent or less – the figure rises to 88 per cent of the BBRF’s funding.
The ANAO is undertaking a review of the fund but isn’t due to report until May 2022.
Large, safe Labor seats Bendigo and Corio got $40,000 and $70,000 respectively whereas the safe Coalition seat of Durack received more than $18m.
Opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Catherine King said regional Australians deserved better than “opaque funding programs’’.
“The numbers don’t lie. Barnaby Joyce and his ministerial panel clearly prioritised their own seats over worthy projects in other parts of the country,” Ms King said. “This is just the latest in a long line of rorts from the Morrison-Joyce government.”
In total, more than $218m of BBRF funding went to the Coalition-held seats, with just over $80m going towards seats held by Labor and independents. More than $33m went to independent-held electorates, representing 11 per cent of total funding, despite representing only 6 per cent of eligible seats.
Exclusively obtained by The Australian, a state-based analysis reveals Victoria appeared to be the big loser from the latest round of BBRF, receiving only 14.8 per cent of funding – slightly higher than Western Australia, which received 14.1 per cent.
NSW and Queensland received 30.3 per cent and 24.4 per cent of the funding respectively.
South Australia had 7.3 per cent of the total funding, Tasmania 5.7 per cent and Northern Territory 3.4 per cent.
The revelations come months after a scathing report from the Australian National Audit Office underlined how senior Coalition ministers divided up the $660m commuter car park fund for projects in marginal or Coalition-held seats.
None of the 47 car park projects was selected by the Department of Infrastructure.
A spokeswoman for Infrastructure Minister Mr Joyce said: “All selected projects were assessed against publicly available guidelines as eligible.”
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