Tapping the pork barrel: A broken system failing every taxpayer

The system under which billions of dollars of grants are handed out to communities across Australia is irretrievably broken.

There’s no other conclusion to be drawn from the figures compiled by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that, grant by grant, electorate by electorate, show a community’s ranking on the electoral pendulum dictates its financial support.

Lindsay, in play at the 2019 election, has attracted more than $23 million in grants.

Across the M4 and South Creek sits the seat of McMahon, which has an almost identical socio-economic background.

But it is a safe Labor seat held by Chris Bowen. It managed to attract $651,000 in support.

Even more troubling is the situation facing the electorates of current Labor leader Anthony Albanese and his predecessor, Bill Shorten.

Among the nation’s 151 electorates, their seats of Grayndler (Albanese) and Maribyrnong (Shorten) received the third and fourth smallest allocations.

It was a different story for current and former leaders of the Liberal Party. Scott Morrison’s seat of Cook received more than $8 million, Tony Abbott’s former seat of Warringah was awarded more than $24 million while the seat held by Malcolm Turnbull, Wentworth, was showered with more than $32 million.

disallowed/politics/federal/tapping-the-pork-barrel-a-broken-system-failing-every-taxpayer-20211203-p59ens.html

Pork barreling needs top be taken off the table IMO.

Raider