Member for Indi, Helen Haines, will host an interactive community forum on March 6th in Wodonga as part of a campaign to ‘End Pork Barrelling’, the practice of governments directing funds to projects in marginal electorates to win votes, without regard to evidence of the project’s merit.
“Taxpayer money should be spent on the needs of communities not the wants of the major parties,” Dr Haines said.
“Funding decisions should be evidence-based, with grants awarded on merit and need.”
She cited prominent examples of pork barrelling such as the Sports Rorts, Commuter Car Park Rorts and the misuse of the Community Battery for Household Solar program.
Dr Haines will introduce her Accountability of Grants, Investment Mandates and Use of Public Resources Amendment (End Pork Barrelling) Bill 2024 in the House of Representatives on Monday.
“As an Independent MP, I have worked hard to improve integrity and accountability in politics,” she said.
“Alongside our community I successfully campaigned for a federal integrity commission, which is now in place. I am continuing that work through this Bill to bring accountability to spending taxpayer money.”
The interactive community forum will be held at The Cube, Wodonga from 7pm on Wednesday March 6th. The event will also be live streamed.
To register go to www.helenhaines.org/end-pork-barrelling-interactive-community-forum/
This article appeared in the Corryong Courier, 22 February 2024.
