Federal and state funds for bushfire recovery have been heavily skewed in favour of state Coalition seats with NSW State Labor picking up just 1% of $177 million handed out. The devastated Blue Mountains electorate, with a Labor MP, received nothing.
The federal Labor electorate of Macquarie was devastated economically by the 2019-2020 bushfires. Macquarie comprises predominantly the state electorates of the Blue Mountains, held by Labor MP Trish Doyle, on a huge 64.9% two party preferred vote, and the state electorate of Hawkesbury, held by Liberal MP Robyn Preston.
At least 80% of the Blue Mountains world heritage area and more than 50% of its Gondwana world heritage rainforests were burned. An estimated 2,600 jobs and $560 million in turnover was lost. And according to the National Bushfire Recovery Agency, the Blue Mountains economic loss was twice that of Hawkesbury’s – some $66 million compared to $33 million.
In the recent round of $177 million funding from the federal and NSW Coalition governments for bushfire recovery, Hawkesbury communities were awarded grants totalling $4 million. The Blue Mountains received nothing.
Macquarie MP Susan Templeman said: “While Macquarie suffered terribly, economically, it is disgraceful for the NSW government to play politics with bushfire recovery money in this way.”
This Thursday (January 28) applications close for community grants under the widely advertised $250 million Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund, with funding provided by the federal and state Coalition governments. The process opened on October 27.
What was never advertised was the $177 million stream of bushfire funding. The first the general public and NSW Labor and the Greens knew of this funding by the federal and state Coalition governments was when federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud and NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro announced on November 2, 2020, that 71 projects in NSW had been ‘fast-tracked’.
According to the joint media release from Minister Littleproud and John Barilaro, projects fast-tracked were:
“Known priority, community and industry recovery projects such as the 71 projects identified by the NSW Government and agreed to by the Commonwealth Government, following local and industry consultation.”
Just exactly what comprised this local and industry consultation?
Roughly $10 million in grants went to industry, primarily the NSW Farmers Association, the Dairy Research Foundation, the NSW Wine Industry Association and research projects at the University of Sydney. None of these projects could be associated with a specific state electorate according to analysis of the projects by Michael West Media.
As for local consultation? According to Blue Mountains Labor MP Trish Doyle, not a single NSW Labor electorate was asked to put forward projects to be considered for grant funding. She says she wasn’t contacted by anyone asking if her electorate had any vital rebuilding projects despite knowing of more than a handful of ‘shovel-ready projects’ desperate for funding. The first she knew of the $177 million stream of funding was reading about it in the media.
Nor were the Greens contacted about putting forward any potential projects, according to its state MP for Ballina Tamara Smith. The tourist meccas of Ballina and Byron were also hit extremely hard by the bushfires. Smith holds Ballina, which incorporates Byron, with a comfortable 55.4% of the two-party preferred vote. The first Smith knew about the funding was when she read about successful grants in the media.
There was money for the Labor (marginal) seat of Lismore, which Janelle Saffin won from the Nationals in an upset at the 2019 NSW election. Some $2 million went to two timber industry projects in Kyogle. Again, Saffin says she was not contacted regarding putting forward any shovel-ready projects, despite knowing numerous excellent candidates.
Of the $177 million funding, just this $2 million (1.1%) went to state Labor seats; no money went to the Greens.
Meanwhile, manna dropped from heaven for Coalition-held state electorates, with funding even given to projects that didn’t have business plans, despite a condition of the fast-track grants, according to Barilaro, that they be “shovel ready”.
It seems the local consultation took the form of informal discussions, with the NSW Coalition government asking councils and various organisations if they had, for example, any unfunded grant applications. Possibly state Coalition MPs were asked if any groups in their electorates wanted funding for projects.
Take, for example, the $2.7 million fast-tracked grant for a roundabout at Shores Drive in Yamba in the NSW state electorate of Clarence, held by Nationals MP Mr Chris Gulaptis.
The local newspaper, the Clarence Valley Independent, reported that when it asked to see a copy of the council’s bushfire recovery application for the roundabout, the general manager of Clarence Valley Council, Ashley Lindsay, said “There wasn’t one.”
“We were asked to provide shovel-ready projects [that] we already had; I guess our application would have been the application we made for the funding for the three roundabouts [in Yamba] on Yamba Rd.”
Mr Lindsay said that when the NSW government asked Clarence Valley Council to nominate a project, “we didn’t know what it was for”.
“We were asked by the state government, do you have any shovel-ready projects that can help with stimulus of the local economy, [and] that was the one we put forward.”
Mr Lindsay told the Independent the $2.7 million grant was “probably” pork barrelling.
Just under $37 million (or 20% of the pot of money) was awarded to the state electorate of Clarence held by the Nationals. At the 2019 state election, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party’s Steve Cansdell recorded a huge 16.8% swing. The Nationals Chris Gulaptis suffered a 3.9% swing against him.
The state electorate of Wagga Wagga was awarded grants totalling more than $43 million (22% of the total funding awarded), including $12.5 million to upgrade the Tumut Aerodrome. This also included two grants of $10 million each to Visy in Tumut.
MP for Wagga Wagga, the Independent Dr Joe McGirr, first won the seat in the 2018 byelection following the resignation of the disgraced Darryl Maguire. In the 2019 NSW election McGirr built on his lead and recorded a massive 28.4% swing to defeat the Nationals.
Fast-tracked projects
Fast-tracking projects meant there was no need for any of the projects to have a business plan. Take the $5.3 million for a 33-kilometre Coastal Trail linking the headlands and beaches of Batemans Bay’s southern shores that was given to Eurobodalla Shire Council, in the state electorate of Bega, held by the Liberals Transport Minister Andrew Constance.
In a letter to a local residents group, the general manager of Eurobodalla Shire Council confirmed a bushfire grant application had not been submitted:
“While Council did not officially submit an application for funding for this project [Batemans Bay Coastal Headland walk] under the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery fund, the Government was aware of this project.”
A May 2019 feasibility study prepared by consultants for the shire council noted that the coastal trail project had no route, no costings, no business plan and no evidence of consultation with the community. The trail was only notionally endorsed by shire councillors one month after the funding announcement.
Without a route, could the trail really be described as “shovel ready”?
On November 27, John Barilaro extended by 12 months the date by which all Bushfire Local Economic Recovery projects had to be completed – from June 2022 to June 2023.
Coalition MPs in the know?
It appears that plenty of Coalition state MPs were in the know about this side stream of $177 million in funding.
Days, even weeks, before the official announcement on November 2, 2020, of the fast-tracked projects, a number of Coalition MPs announced to their electorates that projects had won funding.
Nationals MP Stephen Bromhead
On October 15, 18 days before the official announcement, Nationals MP Stephen Bromhead gave his electorate a heads-up that they would soon be sharing in some of the spoils of the bushfire recovery money, stating in a media release:
“Bushfire impacted businesses and communities in Myall Lakes will soon receive support for local infrastructure and initiatives to drive economic recovery, thanks to the $250 million Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund, co-funded by the state and federal Governments.”
Bromhead represents Myall Lakes, which covers Taree. Some $8.25 million was awarded in fast-tracked grants project to expand and refurbish Taree’s Saxby Stadium.
Liberals Angus Taylor and Wendy Tuckerman
Ten days before the official announcement, federal Liberal Party minister Angus Taylor and his NSW Liberal state colleague Wendy Tuckerman announced on October 23 that their electorate of Goulburn had won a $2 million grant to extend the walking track alongside the Wollondilly River.
Nationals MP Adam Marshall
Seven days before the official announcement, NSW Nationals MP for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall told his electorate that two projects had won funding.
- More than $3.8 million to upgrade recreation and commercial infrastructure at the Dumaresq Dam. The local paper the Armidale Express also reported the grant win that same day – October 26.
- $5 million for a rebuilding and refurbishment at the Livestock selling centres in Armidale and Guyra.
Nationals MP Melinda Pavey
Six days before the official announcement, NSW Nationals MP Melinda Pavey announced a grant of more than $11 million for a Skydiving Adventure Park in the Macleay Valley in her electorate of Oxley.
Nationals MP Paul Toole
That same day (October 27), Nationals MP Paul Toole, the NSW Lands and Racing Minister, and member for Bathurst announced a $1 million BLER grant for a Farmers Creek project in Lithgow.
Nationals MP Kevin Anderson
Kevin Anderson, the NSW Minister for Better Regulation and Nationals MP for Tamworth, announced a $1.1 million grant to fund the refurbishment of Walcha’s swimming pool.
A full list of the 71 fast-tracked projects is available here.
Other analysis by Michael West Media shows that some $25 million of the $177 million in fast-tracked grants (14%) went to the NSW timber industry. Some $10 million was awarded to manufacturing giant Visy for timber projects.
It seems the public, the media and the state and national Audit Offices should be keeping a close eye on how the widely publicised $250 million Bushfire Local Economic Recovery funds are doled out.
Editor’s Note: No doubt many of the projects that received money from this funding are valuable community projects. The failure of the program is that the funding was skewed politically, with Labor and Greens state electorates receiving virtually nothing.
Comments
12 responses to “Bushfire Rorts: Coalition targets bushfire recovery funds for Coalition seats”
If
true, in the minds of the violent, this would justify direct action,
should there be as there will be, fatal fires in those neglected areas!
I wonder if and when vaccines finally arrive, whether Liberal electorates and rich mates will get first serve too.
We already know that the reason they chose AstraZeneca was because of Liberal mates.
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2020/08/good-grief-morrisons-vaccine-an-inside-job/
Wasn’t AstraZenica the first company to have an effective vaccine? Maybe not as effective as Pfizer, but certainly earlier and much easier to manage?
Some have said why use AZ if you can get a better vaccine? I say let’s start ASAP with what we have and works and then later follow up with a better one (if we can get it). No need to wait unnecessarily. And AZ’s supposed history? Can we really have such scruples if we try to immunise a country in a pandemic?
In terms of the first effective vaccine it appears that it was the Pfizer.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-54873105#:~:text=The%20developers%20%2D%20Pfizer%20and%20BioNTech,the%20end%20of%20the%20month.
Here’s the reference about the AstraZeneca vaccine not being as good as expected. Took me a while to find since I’ve read a lot of material today.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/27/too-early-to-say-whether-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-will-go-to-older-people-in-australia
Well a number of recent sources are now saying the AstraZeneca is not effective enough with the older demographic and generally not as effective as other vaccines on the market such as Moderna and Pfizer. Greg Hunt accidently informed us a couple of weeks ago that the reason the Pfizer vaccine is not arriving faster is because they ordered it much later. Originally they put all their eggs in the one basket. Of course we have painted ourselves in to a political corner so we can’t use the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, and even if the Sputnic 5 turned out to be the best, we won’t even make an effort to ask for it. The Chinese vaccine appears to be working quite well, but gets little coverage in Australia. So they are making choices based on a number of reasons despite the need for the quickest supply of vaccine possible.
George,
It looks you’re right about who was first. Nevertheless, the rest of my argument still stands. It is better to have a working vaccine than none at all as the others won’t be here anytime soon. Australia has effectively shot under its own pigeons in our idiotic dispute with China. Not only that, it seems we are sufficiently blinkered that we won’t even deal with Russia, although they seem to have a pretty effective vaccine.
It just goes to show that our sycophancy to the USA even affects our national health.
I can agree with all of that. Your extended argument explains to me as to why you say ” It is better to have a working vaccine than none at all “. It puts it all in context for me.
How many vaccinations are too many? When do humans have too much immunity?
Thank you Elizabeth for bringing this to Australia’s attention.
A quick look through MS media demonstrates that they have all buried it under their junk food lazy-rubbish articles and TV news in order to protect Scotty, his party or any other Liberal once again.
You have to laugh how he postured himself yesterday gaining video clip media opportunities to make him look like he supports women and indigenous Australians, not to mention what a great guy he was giving out citizenship to brown skinned immigrants. Cuts to budgets reveal the complete opposite. Meanwhile the Biloela family languishes for nearly three years in detention on Christmas Island. There is nothing this man does that is not fake and artificially constructed to give him kudos while his monster cabinet behave like henchmen and henchwomen.
This is the most corrupt, crony-loving government is history; they are monumental bludgers, parasites of taxpayers’ money which they see as their own to spend and also use for blatant political vote grabbing opportunism. Same as Mother Teresa Berejiklian in NSW.
Like the virus they spread their Liberal-IPA disease everywhere while the rotten Australian – American media (Costello and Rupert) give them a free pass.
Nobody should be surprised by the LNP’s blatant corruption.
Towards the end of this year, we can choose to kick another own goal, or get them out! Cleanse the states of the current dross masquerading as politicians. Simple as that – no further comment needed!