STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator WHITTEN (Western Australia) (13:40): Government money is not Labor Party money. Taxpayer money is not Labor Party money. It does not belong to Anthony Albanese, and it does not belong to any political party to treat as— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Polley ): Senator Whitten, I remind you to use the correct titles of people in the other place and show respect.
Senator WHITTEN: My apologies—the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese—and it does not belong to any political party to treat as a political slush fund, handing out taxpayer dollars where they believe it will help them win votes. Yet that is precisely why Labor's spending across electorates that it considers safe, marginal or competitive at the last election is so deeply troubling.
At the last election, Labor promised more than half a billion dollars for sports facilities, parks and community infrastructure. The $560 million Major Local Community Infrastructure Fund was established to deliver those promises. Around $493 million of that went to electorates notionally held by Labor—safe, fairly safe or competitive seats.
Just $66 million went to seats where Labor was not competitive. And an examination of more than 220 programs found that 73 per cent of that funding went to electorates notionally held by Labor. This is an extraordinary imbalance.
It raises a simple question: was this government investment based on community need or on political opportunity? The chair of the Centre for Public Integrity, former Justice Anthony Whealy, said: Prima facie, it looks like the misuse of public money or serious pork-barrelling, as it's sometimes called. During the Secret Harbour by-election, Labor again put major infrastructure commitments, including the Karnup train station and a proposed $950 million upgrade to Mandurah Hospital, front and centre of its campaign.
Coincidence? Australians deserve better than politics disguised as public policy. Your postcode should not determine your access to government funding.
Your political allegiance should not determine whether your community gets a new sporting facility, park, train station or hospital. This is taxpayers' money, not Labor's campaign war chest.