Tuesday, 29th September 2020
A damning independent Auditor-General report released today has exposed blatant political pork-barrelling by a Palaszczuk Government minister.
LNP Shadow Minister for Sport and Racing John-Paul Langbroek called on Labor Minister Mick deBrenni to come clean or be sacked following the report.
The report found the Minister personally intervened in the awarding of 33
taxpayer funded grants against expert advice of his department and for no
reason.
“This is nothing more than blatant political pork barrelling,” Mr Langbroek
said.
“The Auditor-General found that the Minister’s intervention in the Female Facilities Program found the change in recommended grants resulted in grants awarded to Australian Labor Party electorates increasing from 44 to 68 per cent, while Liberal National Party electorates’ share of awarded grants decreased from 43 to 28 per cent.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk needs to explain to 14 Queensland community sports clubs why her Sport Minister scrapped a recommended department grant with the stroke of a pen.
“In the interests of transparency, the full list of these 33 grant recipients should be released, including a full list of the 14 organisations that missed out on grant funding thanks to the Minister’s personal intervention.
“These are 14 grass roots community sporting clubs who were recommended to receive upgrades to facilities for their female players but missed out thanks to the intervention of a Palaszczuk Minister.
“Those 14 organisations should have their funding honoured, paid for by the Queensland Labor Party – not the taxpayer.
“The Palaszczuk Government has ripped money off 14
community sport clubs to pork-barrel Labor seats.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk needs to show some leadership and sack him.”
Link to report: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Documents/TableOffice/TabledPapers/2020/5620T1732.pdf
