Premier Dominic Perrottet has questions to answer after it was revealed that he oversaw the administration of the bushfire grants rort.
The NSW Government’s decision to lift the threshold of the bushfire grants, the subject of the NSW Audit Office inquiry, was made within the NSW Cabinet’s Expenditure Review Committee, a Senate estimates hearing has been told.
The ERC was overseen by Dominic Perrottet while he was Treasurer.
The Auditor-General found that the office of the former Deputy Premier John Barilaro set minimum thresholds of $1 million, resulting in 26 of the 27 projects being in Coalition-held electorates.
Three highly impacted Local Government Areas in Labor-held electorates including the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Tenterfield (Lismore) were excluded from fast-track funding.
The Central Coast LGA suffered an economic impact of $163.3 million; Blue Mountains LGA $65.4 million; and Tenterfield $9.7 million and were all overlooked in the fast-track round.
When first asked about the Auditor-General’s report, Mr Perrottet stood by the government for “getting money out of the gate”. He was not forthcoming about his role in the decision to change the rules that would exclude Labor-held electorates.
This morning a National Emergency Management Agency official told a Senate estimates hearing that the NSW Cabinet’s ERC subcommittee:
SENATOR GREEN: Was the agency informed who made a decision to change the threshold? Once you found out? Did you find out who made that decision?
OFFICIAL: The agency found out about that after the fact. So we weren’t aware at the time of releasing or agreeing that the funds would be released to the NSW Government. My understanding is that the decision to finalise projects also had to go through the NSW cabinet process. And so what we were aware was that there was a decision made in the context of NSW securing their funding through their ERC process.
Quotes attributable to John Graham, NSW Shadow Special Minister of State:
“I still cannot believe that this Government chose to politicise disaster relief. A Minns Labor Government would place pork-barrelling protections in the law and restore integrity to the grants process.”
Quotes attributable to Daniel Mookhey, NSW Shadow Treasurer:
“Today’s Senate estimates makes it clear that Premier Dominic Perretott has questions to answer.
“It’s time he fronted up and tells the people of this state why the Cabinet’s Expenditure Review Committee he oversaw decided to politicise the bush fire grant process to benefit Coalition seats.”
Quotes attributable to Jihad Dib, NSW Shadow Minister for Emergency Services:
“Today’s Senate estimates further confirms that the NSW Coalition Government essentially made the rules up on the run and did so for political purposes.
“The pork barrelling of disaster relief was an inexcusable breach of faith with the community. Either Dominic Perrottet was complicit or negligent in his role. Either way he should have stopped it from happening.”
JOHN GRAHAM MLC
NSW DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION IN THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
NSW SHADOW SPECIAL MINISTER OF STATE
DANIEL MOOKHEY MLC
NSW SHADOW TREASURER
JIHAD DIB MP
NSW SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES
