Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Growing Suburbs Fund

Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (15:51): I rise today to call on the Auditor-General to undertake a full investigation into the Growing Suburbs Fund. During the last budget debate I drew the attention of the house to the blatant pork-barrelling being undertaken by the government using this fund as a vehicle. Eighty per cent of the total funds available in last year’s rounds went to government-held seats. Nowhere was the manipulation of the fund more blatant than on the Mornington Peninsula, where the seat of Nepean received 9 per cent of total funds available. Mornington got nothing. Hastings got nothing.

I thought things had changed when on 3 February this year the Mornington Peninsula shire made a very welcome announcement that $3 million had been allocated from the fund to support the development of a peninsula trail network. Seeing the headline, I said, ‘Fantastic. They’ve finally agreed to fund the primary section of trail from Moorooduc to Mornington’. I should have known better. Why would Labor be spending taxpayer funds in a Liberal-held seat? No surprise, they were not. The funded section runs from Somerville to Baxter. While this is certainly welcome news, the blatant politicisation of the fund is not. Why is Hastings suddenly getting funds when previously none have been available? Could it be something to do with the fact that following the redistribution Hastings is now notionally a marginal Labor seat? Of course the priority section, Moorooduc to Mornington, is in a Liberal seat. It is about time Labor stopped playing politics with public funding and provided every seat with the infrastructure and services required. In the meantime the Auditor-General needs to have a serious look at this fund.