The Coalition Government is being called out for misusing your tax dollars. What did it spend the money on? Car parks. While the $660 million “car park rort” might sound v. dry and boring, it’s a pretty major political scandal that indicates how the Coalition treats money, politics and the Australian public – let us explain.
A few definitions to know first:
- The Auditor-General is an independent auditor responsible for auditing Federal-level government agencies, organisations and departments. They are supported by Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) and report back to the Federal Parliament. Auditor-Generals are selected and appointed by the Governor General and the Prime Minister, and hold their role for 10 years. The current Auditor-General is Grant Hehir, who was appointed in 2015.
- Urban Congestion Fund is a $4.8 billion Federal government program to invest in projects that will help reduce traffic and road congestion in urban areas. The Commuter Car Park Fund is a program within this, dedicated purely to car parks with $711m in it. All of this falls under the Department of Infrastructure.
From the top – what even is a car park rort?
At the end of June 2021, the Auditor-General released his report into one part of the Urban Congestion Fund – specifically, the section of the fund that was to be used to upgrade car parks to encourage people to use public transport.
For large investment projects like this, here is how the process usually goes: the relevant Department set eligibility or application criteria for the funding program > people submit their applications to receive funding > staffers from the Department go through all the submissions and create a shortlist of recommended projects > the Minister has final say, and picks the projects to receive funding from the list.
But the Auditor-General found that the way the Department of Infrastructure created the shortlist was very biased. Instead of the normal process, the Department simply:
- Asked 23 Coalition MPs and candidates to identify six electorates held at the time by Labor or the Centre Alliance parties – basically, electorates they might be able to win from those parties
- Added projects that it already knew of to the list
There was no formal application process at all.
In total, 47 car parks were granted funding – all of these were chosen by then-Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge and Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The Auditor-General said the selection process “was not merit based” because:
- 38 were chosen at the request of a Coalition Minister to the Prime Minister
- 6 were selected as 2019 election promises
- 2 projects had no evidence of why or how they were selected
Even worse, the Auditor-General said that the selection of the projects was based on “geographical and political profile” – i.e.: the PM and Tudge were choosing projects that would buy the Coalition more votes:
- 30 car parks (64%) were in Melbourne, despite Sydney having much more traffic congestion. 25 of those car parks went to electorates held by the Liberal Party. None of those are in the most congested parts of Melbourne (which are held by Labor)
- Across the country, 77% of the car parks were in Liberal-held seats, often in electorates where the Liberal candidates are losing popularity or facing strong challenges – (like Kooyong VIC, where Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is being taken on by the Voices For Kooyong grassroots campaign)
- 10% were held by Labor, but then won by the Coalition at the 2019 election
THE TAKEAWAY: Scott Morrison and Alan Tudge spent $660m of taxpayer funds on car park projects that would politically benefit the Liberal and National Parties – none of the 47 car parks that got money were chosen to actually reduce congestion. They did not use any formal application or selection processes.
WATCH: David Speers asks @Birmo about the government's "pork-barelling" through the $660 million Commuter Car Park Fund #Insiders #auspol pic.twitter.com/kfog1PAzmc
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) July 3, 2021
Why is that bad?
This car park rort is bad in so many ways, but to name a few biggies:
It Won’t Actually Reduce Congestion: Because the car parks were chosen for what looks likely blatantly political reasons, Morrison and Tudge completely overlooked projects that would have had a greater impact on increasing public transport use – the actual aim of the fund! None of the most congested parts of Melbourne were funded at all. Despite its neighbouring electorates receiving money, nothing went to Chisholm’s (VIC) seven train or the almost a dozen stations in Isaacs (VIC) according to the Sydney Morning Herald ($). The Auditor-General has deemed the entire scheme ineffective – the money has been spent, but won’t really help boost public transport use. Some of the projects that did receive funding won’t even add extra parking spaces with the money ($).
Misuse of Your Money: Like all Government funds, the money for the Urban Congestion Fund comes from us – all people and businesses operating in Australia. For Morrison and Tudge to spend that money for their own political gain and not to improve infrastructure and services for people in Australia is an abuse of power. It’s not quite ‘fraudulent’ but it is a serious breach of trust, and also arguably a breach of Ministerial standards.
The Government Knows & Doesn’t Care: The car park rort scandal is making people particularly angry because of the Government’s response. When asked about the Auditor General’s report, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said: “The Australian people had their chance and voted the Morrison government back in the [2019] election and we are determined to get on with local infrastructure, as we are nation-building infrastructure.”
His comments seem to imply that the Government believes it is only accountable to the public at election time and they can do whatever they want outside of election campaigns.
Funding Cuts to Auditor-General: While the car park rorts report is proving the importance of the Australian National Audit Office, the government has halved it’s funding over the past 10 years. Despite the fact that a Coalition-majority committee urged Morrison to increase funding for the ANAO, the PM has refused to do so. Auditor-General Greg Heir says that if the trend continues, the ANAO will have to reduce the number of reports it releases (currently averaging 47 a year).
Ok, and what about “sports rorts”?
Still with us? Alongside the fury about the car park rort, you’ve probably also heard mentions of “sports rorts”. The truth is that the current Coalition government has a history of misusing taxpayer money – also known as pork-barrelling. The most high profile examples to date:
Sports Rorts: In 2018, the government announced a community sport infrastructure fund. The money would be granted to local sports clubs to help upgrade their facilities, with the goal of increasing participation in community sport. The application process, run by Sport Australia, was above board. However, the Sport Minister at the time Bridget McKenzie (National Party) ran her own assessment process. McKenzie ignored all of Sport Australia’s recommendations and gave 70% of the money to sports clubs in National Party seats or those who had direct links to Coalition members. Some examples include:
- $190,000 to the Mosman Rowing Club (Sydney), to install a lift to attract more wedding bookings at the venue
- $50,000 for the affluent and exclusive Royal Adelaide Golf Club to install solar panels
- $500,000 to a Redcliffe (QLD) rugby club to build a women’s changeroom… despite them not having a women’s team
When the Auditor-General report exposed this in 2020, the backlash was so big McKenzie resigned from her roles as a Minster and as Deputy Nationals leader. However, Barnaby Joyce reinstated her to the Cabinet last month when he was re-elected as Deputy PM.
Safer Communities Fund: Peter Dutton did the exact same thing with the Safer Communities Fund in 2018. His Home Affairs Department had been through the submissions and created a merit-based ranking of 70 community safety projects to be funded – Dutton ignored this, reducing funding for the 19 highest-ranking projects and allocating the rest of the money as he wished and despite being warned against doing so. He also announced the recipients of two grants before they had even been assessed. ABC 7.30 reported extensively on this.
Leppington Triangle Land Purchase: In July 2018, the Federal Department of Infrastructure purchased a 21-hectare plot of land in Bringelly, NSW, which is right next to where the new Western Sydney airport will be built. The Government used taxpayer money to purchase the land from The Leppington Pastoral Company (owned by Tony and Ron Perich) for a price of $29.8 million. Less than a year later, the land was valued at $3m – to say they overpaid is an understatement.
Not only that, but the Auditor-General’s report into the purchase found that there was no benefit to the taxpayer – and therefore no reason for the purchase to even be made. Not only that, but as part of the purchase deal the Government had agreed to a) lease the land back to The Leppington Pastoral Company and b) pay for a $10m private underpass ($) to connect the property to another plot of land also owned by the same company. For what it’s worth, the Perich brothers who own it are billionaires and Liberal party donors.
With Bridget McKenzie's return to the cabinet, there is now no one who has suffered any long term consequences for any actions in this government. They're all back where they started.
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) June 27, 2021
Are there any consequences?
Nope. It’s frustrating, but pork barrelling or misusing taxpayer funds in this way is not illegal. Labor Senators have called for an inquiry into the car park rort but generally there are only consequences for the Ministers involved if the Government believes public pressure demands it – as was the case for Bridget McKenzie and the sports rort.
By the government’s own rules, Ministers are allowed to override the recommendations of independent bodies or their own department’s when allocating funding. It’s essentially a judgement call, and all they need to do is say that they believe(d) the selected project had merit.
It’s something that a loud chorus of voices in Australia are calling to change, through closing the Ministerial judgement loophole, stopping cuts to the Auditor-General, and establishing an independent, federal-level anti-corruption agency (similar to NSW’s Independent Commissions Against Corruption).
But according to Simon Birmingham, the Government can do whatever it wants if we vote them in at the next election.
