Hans Lovejoy, editor
Have you been put over a barrell? One full of pork?
Pork barrelling has emerged again in the news, this time in state politics.
And it is worth having a closer look, given it appeared to influence the 2019 federal election too.
Put simply, pork barrelling is where certain electorates are favoured by politicans with cash (grants, infrastructure projects etc) to curry favour.
It’s nothing new – The Rudd/Gillard government had its Regional Development Australia Fund. The Howard Government had its Regional Partnerships Program. The Keating government had a Community, Cultural, Recreational and Sporting Facilities Program. The most brazen is of course the Morrison government’s Community Sport Infrastructure Program.
According to SMH (Nine), NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian said last week that pork barrelling is ‘not illegal’, and ‘part of the political process’.
Her comments came after it emerged the allocation of the $250 million Stronger Communities Grants fund favoured Liberal and National Party electorates.
Despite being legal, it is embarrassing to be found out; her office shredded documents at the centre of the inquiry into the grants fund, which were later recovered by her office.
It’s questionable though, how ethical the practice is, given it is essentially a bribe.
Are we being well governed if politicians buy the elections?
Yet electorates such as this – the Ballina electorate comprising Byron and Ballina shires – have benefitted from pork barrelling.
A very ambitious Nationals MLC seemed to have convinced his political masters in Sydney that showering us in funding promises would get him the job. It didn’t at the last election, but that doesn’t seem to have discouraged him.
Pork barrelling is a form of control that politicians shouldn’t have over voters. The governing elite already have way too much power over everyone else.
And they will always want more, and MORE.
Fun fact: The NSW Nationals leader, John Barilaro, proudly calls himself ‘Pork Barilaro’.
Let’s go one further – the likes of Barilaro are PIGs – People In Government. You can tell a PIG because their skin is ham coloured. The complexion and weak bone structure of pork barrellers is a result of a lifetime in office spaces and meetings. And the only way to deal with porkers is to send them to the abattoir at election time.
I’ll pay that one, Hans. Barilaro has his own slippery pen. A bribe’s a bribe.
It’s a deal. It’s buying support to turn an election in the briber’s favor. Under
-hand & gutless… whoever does it. Yeah – a political-soup flash-back. When
is a lie not a lie? It ‘beats me’.
Mussolini didn’t have a neck either.
Hans you have been in a office most of your life……………
Are you PINK or GREEN?
Than again this is the ECHO, should be a off shoot of the ABC
the way you guys call colours without referring to yourselves.
I’m following in the ABC’s footsteps.
I hope all is okay with the Echo. I am having trouble getting through
as in ‘locked out’. Very strange. Anyway xmas wishes to all & stay
safe.
yes we are fine – a nice pre-Christmas technical glitzch with the phones – of course!
There is a very simple and effective way of combating political pork barrelling – when the government funds are eventually made available to the various sporting groups, charities, not for profit organisations etc these organisations could refuse to accept the funds. However, I can’t see that happening, ah. Those that whinge about pork barrelling, rub their hands with glee when the dough $$ turns up.
Not always, Mark. The Literature Unit of the Australia council [years back] granted
me a large sum [dollars] to inspect & write a series of happenings in Queensland’s
history. Once I’d uncovered the beastly treatment First Nation People faced I refused
the payment settlement. That took place in 1975.