Member for Riverina Michael McCormack has fiercely defended his Government’s funding of the Better Regions Fund and says what he did as Minister for Infrastructure was the right thing to do.
“We funded projects which would never have received funding under Labor and I am very proud of what I was able to achieve to get some of those projects up for those communities, which were very deserving.
“I highlighted the Federal funding allocated to Narrandera Sportsground’s change rooms and clubhouse upgrade over the weekend – appropriate, targeted and timely Commonwealth funding similar to the many Building Better Regions Fund projects granted money right across regional Australia.
“I ask these questions: Which project in the Riverina and Central West should not have received funding? Which main street upgrade should not have been the recipient of Building Better Regions funding? Which saleyard or airport upgrade or museum or sports stadium should not have been funded? Why shouldn’t Lockhart get a community facility to help improve social amenity for not only Lockhart, but also the smaller communities in the Lockhart Shire?
“All of these projects, not only in the Riverina and Central West, but, indeed, right throughout regional Australia were recommended for funding. It’s just that the Australian National Audit Office believes that some projects scored higher in the Department’s estimations for funding. But no-one knows their own local area and their local people’s wants, needs and expectations better than a local MP. Departmental officials are not elected and the decision-making has to remain with the Minister and Ministerial Council.
“Politicians are not elected to go to Canberra to be overruled by, quite frankly, some faceless bureaucrat who may never have been in the regions and certainly wouldn’t have been to some of the smaller communities I have been into and sat across the table from local Mayors who have told me and assured me why their projects are deserving.
“The other point is, many of the larger Councils have the resourcing and the staffing to be able to put in fancy applications and really detailed submissions, way over and above the smaller Councils which don’t have the capacity – why should these little Councils miss out? Their people are, in fact, probably more deserving. They punch well above their weight when it comes to sending tax receipts to Canberra by way of farming, agriculture, manufacturing and all sorts of things. The regions lead the way,” he said.
The Australian National Audit Office recently handed down a scathing assessment of the $1.15 billion Coalition-run program, finding two thirds of funded infrastructure projects were “not those assessed as being the most meritorious”.
It said since 2016, the Building Better Regions Fund had splashed cash for community hubs, holiday parks, jetties, sporting facilities and more around regional Australia, almost 1300 projects in total.
Labor, then in opposition, accused the Coalition of pork barrelling, dubbing the scheme “regional rorts”.
The audit found many funding decisions were not appropriately informed by departmental advice and criticised a lack of documentation of decisions.
It said the grants program itself was well designed but the makeup of the ministerial panel wasn’t transparently set out, and criticised the use of “other factors” to override the results of departmental merit assessments.
Nationals-held seats were given 29 per cent more – $104 million – across five rounds of funding “than would have been the case had the results of the merit assessment process been relied upon”.
“Electorates held by all other parties were awarded less grant funding than would have been the case had the merit assessment results been relied upon,” the ANAO found.
On 164 occasions, the ministerial panel made up of Nationals MPs, including former leaders Barnaby Joyce and Michael Mc-Cormack, decided not to approve applications the Infrastructure Department recommended, without giving any reasons.
Meanwhile, 15 projects not recommended by the department were funded.
“The decisions about the award of grant funding across each of the five funding rounds were not appropriately informed by departmental advice, particularly with respect to the third and fifth rounds,” the ANAO wrote.
“The basis for the funding decisions has not been appropriately documented, particularly in the three most recently completed rounds.
“It was common in the infrastructure projects stream (the larger of the two streams) for the approved applications to not be those assessed as best meeting the published criteria and for applications assessed as highly meritorious against the published criteria to not be awarded funding.
“There were inadequate records of the inputs to the decision-making process and the basis for decisions to approve projects assessed as less meritorious against the four published merit criteria and to reject applications assessed as having higher merit.”
The ANOA called for officials to tighten eligibility criteria and recommended the panel reject non-supported applications and clearly justify not approving any applications recommended for funding, as well as improving record-keeping.
The audit office said both Mr McCormack and former Nationals senator Fiona Nash provided letters of response to the report but only Nash’s was published.
She said it was important to recognise departmental decision-makers were based in cities rather than regional Australia.
“They do not have the benefit of an on-the-ground understanding of the regional communities, and their circumstances, where projects are proposed to be located, and the potential impact and benefit of those projects,” she said.
An analysis performed by Labor in 2021 found 72 per cent of the $300 million handed out in round five went towards Liberal and Nationals electorates and another 16 per cent went to marginal electorates or target seats.
This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 11 August 2022.
