It’s time to stop the political funding game

Senator McKenzie’s politicisation of the sports funding process was unacceptable. And unless the PM and his government officially recognise this wrongdoing – and call it – it will inevitably happen again and again, writes Simon Bevilacqua.

AUSTRALIAN democracy is at a crossroads after last week’s resignation of deputy National Party leader Bridget McKenzie – a moment to choose between a more ethical path or to continue down a well-worn road that is undermining faith in our politicians and our political system.

Senator McKenzie resigned due to a conflict of interest after she was found to have breached ministerial guidelines by not reporting in a timely fashion her membership of a gun club to which she granted funding. So be it. No more need be said.

But there is another bone of contention — that she and her office distributed sports funds with a political bias, as identified by the Auditor-General in a report last month.

The Prime Minister last week appeared to suggest Senator McKenzie and her office have been cleared of wrongdoing on this second matter, and that her funding process was acceptable.

Therein lies the rub.

Senator McKenzie’s politicisation of the funding process was unacceptable. I know it, you know it, most of us know it. It was wrong.

I am not suggesting for a moment Senator McKenzie committed a crime or that her wrongdoing was criminal, just that her distribution of funding along political lines, as recognised by the public and the Auditor-General, was plainly and simply wrong.

The colour-coded assessment process, which designated different colours to funding applications depending on which party held the seat from which they came is the smoking gun.

And unless the PM and his government officially recognise this wrongdoing, and call it as a vast majority of Australians and the Auditor-General see it, it will inevitably happen again and again.

Nationals Deputy Leader Bridget McKenzie addresses the media at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Monday, Feb. 3, 2020 after she resigned from Cabinet. Picture: AP PHOTO/ROD MCGUIRK

Senator McKenzie is not the first minister to do it. Far from it. Pork-barrelling is an old caper. In its simplest guise it is the practice of distributing funding to seats that are marginal in a bid to sway voters. If the voters buy it, the win for the government and the minister distributing the funds is another term in office, hands on the levers of power and all the associated perks.

We’ve known about pork-barrelling for yonks — it’s one reason government agencies such as the Australian Sports Commission or Sport Australia were established; to make recommendations to a minister to keep the process at arm’s length from politics and ensure a fair selection process.

The PM was right saying his minister had the power to ignore Sport Australia’s advice, but this provision is to allow flexibility in exceptional circumstances. In Senator McKenzie’s case, hundreds of applications judged by Sport Australia as worthy of funding missed out and hundreds that were not endorsed by the agency were approved. Her office rode roughshod over the independent process.

Senator McKenzie’s office colour-coded applications – blue for Liberal, green for National, red for Labor or orange for independent – and most funds went to marginal or targeted seats.

The PM last week defended political considerations in the selection process because they were not the only considerations.

No, sorry, the political colour of an application should have nothing to do with its success or failure; not a jot, nowt, and the public knows it. What happened was wrong, and we want it stopped. The first thing to do is enforce the public understanding of the wrong that occurred, which has been identified as political bias by the Auditor-General.

Again, let me be clear, I am not suggesting Senator McKenzie or any of her staff has committed a crime, but I am suggesting that such wrongdoing, as understood by the public and the Auditor-General, should in future be considered a criminal act.

Throw the book at future ministers and staff who politicise such processes. We fine drivers for parking without a permit in disabled spaces and ping pedestrians for jaywalking. We jail druggies for growing weed and allow employees who are drunk at work to be sacked.

We interrogate tourists over contraband and frisk feckless festival-goers. We clamp the lumpy-cam cars of hoons and cancel the dole for those who don’t apply for enough jobs.

Let’s fine, sack, jail or otherwise sanction future ministers and staffers who undermine democracy.

The Auditor-General can arbitrate whether there is a case to answer.

Let’s send a clear message to the faceless, unaccountable and unelected spin doctors who scuttle back and forth in the dark between ministers and departments that they will be dealt with severely if caught with the faintest whiff of pork.

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Pork-barrelling is a perversion of democracy. Let’s go beyond ministerial guidelines. Let’s outlaw it.

Pork-barrelling subverts the will of the people by electing governments with policies that fail to represent, let alone benefit, most people.

As a result, voters feel alienated and impotent against a monolithic machine with a figurehead, our PM, who seems to think it is acceptable to politically colour code government funding.

Do not be fooled into accepting pledges of better explanations of the grants processes, either. We don’t let off jaywalkers or traffickers or hoons because they made their dirty deeds transparent.

We are at a crossroads where we can ignore the bleedingly obvious and accept the PM’s “nothing to see here” charade or we can choose a fairer, more ethical path by criminalising the politicisation of processes that should be administered at arm’s length from politicians and their staff.