ADJOURNMENT

Mr SMALL (Forrest—Opposition Whip) (13:17): It seems that this Labor government just can't help itself, whether it was the Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program, which the chair of the Centre for Public Integrity recently described with the words, 'Prima facie, it looks like the misuse of public money or serious pork-barrelling, as it's sometimes called,' or the Stronger Communities Program, which saw 93 per cent of funding for CCTV projects directed into Labor's own seats.

In the words of the Black Eyed Peas, perhaps this mob 'just can't get enough' of pork-barrelling. Fresh figures, though, have revealed yet another one of Labor's dodgy grants programs: the Supporting Multicultural Communities program, a program which has distributed millions of dollars to mosques, temples, churches and cultural centres across Australia. You would have thought that, with the 105 related projects that the Labor government has released under this program, you'd see an equitable spread.

Instead, 98 of the 105 are in the government's own seats. That is more than $168 million of taxpayer money, or 95 per cent of funding for multicultural projects, into the government's own seats, because apparently, under Labor, whatever need you see for funding in mosques, temples, churches and cultural centres disappears the moment you cross into a seat that's not held by the government.

It is ridiculous. Of the 105 projects, only seven are in seats the government doesn't hold. Australians are being played for fools.

Take the seat of Parramatta alone, in which Labor gave six projects more than $17 million of funding. That is 10 per cent of a national program worth of funding into one Labor held seat. Why is it that projects in the seat of Parramatta are so much more important than worthy projects anywhere else across the country?

Perhaps the fact the seat was on a 3.7 per cent margin prior to the last election would have something to do with it. It's shameless behaviour from this government, but perhaps all the more extraordinary because it is utter hypocrisy when we compare it against the standard that Labor set in opposition. The minister who spent years screaming about pork-barrelling from the opposition benches, infrastructure minister Catherine King—or the queen of pork-barrelling, as I like to refer to her—is more than happy to set another standard for her own side now that they're on the government benches.

On the Urban Congestion Fund, the minister said at the time: This was rorting on a nuclear scale. On the Infrastructure Australia projects, in December of 2023, when she was in fact a government minister, the minister said: This week the Parliament passed legislation to restore Infrastructure Australia as the Commonwealth's premier adviser on infrastructure investment.

So far, so good, but the quote continues that there would be 'no more colour coded spreadsheets and no more pork barrelling'. Well, the minister stayed true to her word on that one, because the spreadsheets are now all just red. On the Building Better Regions Fund, in 2021 the now minister said: The Deputy Prime Minister is shameless.

Around 90% of Building Better Regions funding went to Coalition held or target seats. It wasn't about developing regional Australia, it was about pork barrelling Nationals seats. Well, Minister, if you call that pork barrelling, we need to understand why it is that the government's Stronger Communities Programme, which has seen even higher amounts of funding, goes into the government's own seats.

Indeed under the Supporting Multicultural Communities Program, 95 per cent of funding has gone into your own seats. These are substantially above the bar that you proclaimed for yourself in opposition. It seems to me that, like everything Labor does, we don't need to listen to what they say; we need to look at what they do.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has developed a habit, it seems, of dumping money into electorates that suit their political purposes at election time. I would contend that now they are being exposed as frauds. No amount of pork barrelling will save this Prime Minister from the judgement of Australians when they next front the ballot box.