8 election days to go: regional rorts revealed

A political bomb was thrown into the election campaign yesterday when the normally staid national auditor’s office released a report condemning the Government for its management of a $410 million scheme of grants to regional and rural towns.

The report found that Coalition ministers had intervened on seven occasions to approve grants worth more than $10 million dollars for Coalition seats, despite advice from the Department of Transport and Regional Services that the grants should not been given.

Even worse, in several cases grants were awarded for projects that had not even submitted an application for funding. Months or years later, several of these projects have still not got off the ground, leaving millions in grant money lying unused.

At a time when claims to economic responsibility are central to the election debate, yesterday’s report was the last thing the Coalition would have wanted. It suggests a Government more interested in politics than following proper processes – and will leave businesses unable to access schemes like Commercial Ready or the Export Development Markets scheme because of caps or competition wondering why the money couldn’t have been devoted to more productive schemes.

The release of the report overshadowed yesterday’s debate between Education Minister Julie Bishop and her shadow Stephen Smith. Bishop made the most notable contribution in the debate, commenting that, having visited many schools, she was “yet to see a school not well served by computers.”

Labor immediately sought to make hay from the comment, saying that it points to an ‘out of touch’ Government and calling on Prime Minister John Howard to repudiate Bishop’s words.

Given that Howard was in the midst of announcing $284 million for more aged care beds across the country, computers in schools was about the last thing he wanted to be talking about. But for Howard, it has just been that sort of campaign.

And speaking of things technical, all eyes will this afternoon be on the broadband debate between communications minister Helen Coonan and Labor spokesman Stephen Conroy – after all, it is one of the few areas where there is a substantial policy difference between the major parties.

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