In November 2020 the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, conceded that $140m in grants to councils that were approved in the nine months before the last state election amounted to pork barreling, but said there was nothing illegal about it.
“It’s not something the community likes ... but it’s an accusation I will wear,” she said. "It’s not unique to our government,” Berejiklian said.
“It’s not an illegal practice. Unfortunately it does happen from time to time by every government,” she said.
Fortunately, some might say, the Eurobodalla didn't miss out securing $8 million worth of "pork" for the new Batemans Bay 350 seat theatre.
Two NSW Government ministers have been accused of ignoring expert recommendations and pork-barrelling $44 million in arts funding into Coalition electorates.
Ahead of the 2019 New South Wales state election that was held on Saturday 23 March 2019, a team of experts had, in September 2018, been appointed to assess more than 150 applications for the Regional Cultural Fund grants and ranked the 116 successful projects in the order they should be funded.
Documents obtained by the ABC under freedom of information laws revealed their advice was largely ignored and instead all but $3 million was spent on projects in Coalition seats.
A total of 56 projects were funded in 23 electorates, of which 20 were held by the Coalition.
The Batemans Bay Pavilions theatre was one of the recipients.
The interesting bit though is that the Bay project didn't even make it to the expert panel for the tick of approval.
Earlier that year, on March 26th 2018, we witnessed the local Member and the Premier make an announcement in Batemans Bay that the State Government would provide $26 million to the project, made up of $18 million for the aquatic centre, and $8 million for the arts and cultural facility.
As it turned out the $8 million became embroiled in Pork Barreling revelations.
What was revealed in Parliament was that the $8 million for the Batemans Bay Mackay Park under Round Two was announced six months before that Round opened without application
In October 2018, much to no-ones surprise, the Mackay Park theatre was Number 1 on the list, with the highest grant awarded in the state. In leaked documents obtained by the ABC it turns out however that in the expert opinion of the grants review panel the Mackay Park project came in at number 72.
But it was all too late. The grant had been announced and that was that.
The Bay Pavilion Pork Chop Theatre was funded by pork-barreling and there would be nothing more to say on the matter.
As Gladys says "“It’s not an illegal practice. Unfortunately it does happen from time to time by every government ”.
Photo : March 26th The Premier and Member for Bega with members of the Batemans Bay Indoor Aquatic Centre Committee Inc
Read more HERE: Probing the numbers - it trickles out in dribs and drabs
