editorial Welcome to this week’s editorial, The ICAC hearing around the $5.5million that was granted to the Wagga shoo9ng range has been of interest to many in the South East. From 9me to 9me we have seen the Premier arrive in the region and make announcements of State Vol 16 September 15th 2017 infrastructure funding. Of delight was the $30 million for the comple9on of the 28Road December 7th,of 2017 Vol 48 April 27th 2018 Spine bypass Batemans Bay and the commitment of funding for the Eurobodalla Regional Hospital. Both were on the cards, long overdue and welcome. But there was a joint announcement made in March 2018 in regards to $26 million for the new Batemans Bay pool and theatre that has raises some serious ques9ons. The announced $26 million came from NSW Government’s $1.3 billion Regional Growth Fund that was under the control of the Minister for Regional NSW, The Hon John Barilaro, Deputy Premier. The $26 million grant was divided into $18 million for the pool and $8 million. The $8 million was sourced under a sub-pool for Regional Cultural Funding. What we now know is that the $8 million was porkbarrelled. It was awarded six months before applica9ons were called and when scru9nised by an independent panel rated Number 72, well below more deserving grants such as the Bega Regional Gallery upgrade (Ranking #1) that missed out all together. In making the $8 million theatre announcement both the Premier and local Member MUST have known the details of the funding. The Deputy Premier and former Arts Minister Don Harwin were accused of porkbarreling aHer expert advice on where to spend the Regional Cultural Fund Grants was largely ignored. In the end an admission was made that there was “pork barrelling. So the Deputy Premier admits to pork-barrelling. And the New South Wales Premier even concedes that $140m in grants to councils that were approved in the nine months before the last state elec9on amount to pork barrelling dismissing it by saying there was nothing illegal about it. “It’s not something the community likes ... but it’s an accusa9on I will wear,” “It’s not unique to our government,”. “It’s not an illegal prac9ce. Unfortunately it does happen from 9me to 9me by every government,” she said. If we follow their ra9onale the pork barrelling is good for regional economies with John Barilaro saying “What we call pork-barrelling is investment,” “I dare you to turn up to these communi9es and tell them they don’t deserve these projects.” But what if the giH horse turns out to be a donkey? We hear that the Wagga facility didn’t stack up with it’s business case. The Mackay Park project, by being fast tracked, didn’t have its business case scru9nised. Not at a State Level, or at a Federal Level which granted $25 million to the project ten days out from the announcement of a Federal elec9on. Like the Wagga Gun Club project our Bay Pavilion project was required to demonstrate a Cost Benefit Ra9o above 1.0 in order to gain the grant. Because we were giHed the funding we will never know the result as we never lodged the required FULL business case. Our grants were giHed and the cheques may as well have been wriNen on large replicas of bacon. So who benefits from all of this? The community leH with an unaffordable legacy or poli9cians vying for votes to ensure they remain in power? Will our humble Bay Pavilion porkiness be men9oned in ICAC . No. It will be business as usual and what we have come to expect, and accept. Un9l next—lei beagle weekly : Vol 231 October 29th 2021
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