{"id":8443,"date":"2020-09-29T12:30:23","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T12:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=8443"},"modified":"2020-09-29T12:30:23","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T12:30:23","slug":"hundreds-of-millions-of-public-funds-used-for-liberal-national-slush-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/09\/29\/hundreds-of-millions-of-public-funds-used-for-liberal-national-slush-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of millions of public funds used for Liberal-National slush fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

NSW Labor have obtained documents that reveal the NSW Liberals and NSW Nationals used around $400 million in grants as a slush fund to buy votes.
\nThe Stronger Country Communities Fund (SCCF) was designed to fund projects throughout regional and rural NSW, however, analysis shows funding decisions were based more on political self-interest rather than the best interests of the community.
\nAbout 1550 projects received funding under rounds one, two and three, with more than 80 per cent of those located in electorates held by Coalition MPs.
\nIn rounds one and two \u2013 announced prior to the 2019 NSW election \u2013 more than 87 per cent of grants were allocated to seats held by Coalition MPs, while projects that were clearly allocated in Labor-held seats accounted for less than four per cent.
\nIt is unclear where some projects in council areas crossing multiple electorates were located.
\n$100 million worth of funds was distributed during rounds one and three, with $200 million being distributed in round two \u2013 just months before the 2019 state election.
\nNSW Labor Leader Jodi McKay said it was blatantly obvious the SCCF was not to assist communities throughout rural and regional NSW: \u201cThis was designed to buy the last election.\u201d
\n\u201cThis taxpayers money. It is not the Liberal-National Parties\u2019 slush fund.
\n“We should not normalise this type of behaviour,\u201d she said.
\nFour of the largest grants in round two went to marginal seats, two to fairly safe Coalition seats, one to a National seat with changing members, one to a safe Nationals seat and one to a safe Labor seat.
\nThe largest of all three round\u2013 a grant worth more than $3 million in round two \u2013 went to Snowy Monaro Regional Council, located in the marginal seat of NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro.
\nAn NSW Parliament Upper House inquiry examining the NSW Liberals and NSW Nationals distribution of funds as part of certain grants, will begin\u00a0on Monday, September 21.<\/a>\u00a0Shadow Minister for Local Government, Greg Warren, said the SCCF revelations were just the tip of the iceberg.
\n\u201cThe Berejiklian-Barilaro Government were elected to represent the entire state \u2013 not just areas that suited their own political agenda.\u201d
\n\u201cThese were public funds meant to benefit the public \u2013 not to bolster the NSW Liberals and NSW National re-election prospects,\u201d Mr Warren said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NSW Labor have obtained documents that reveal the NSW Liberals and NSW Nationals used around $400 million in grants as a slush fund to buy votes. The Stronger Country Communities Fund (SCCF) was designed to fund projects throughout regional and rural NSW, however, analysis shows funding decisions were based more on political self-interest rather than … Continue reading “Hundreds of millions of public funds used for Liberal-National slush fund”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}