Monday 17th August 2026
Queen of Pork Barrelling Referred to Auditor-General
After revealing that over 90% of grants awarded under Minister Catherine King’s Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program (MLCIP) had been in Labor-held seats, on top of the Supporting Multicultural Communities Program (SMPC) that allocated 94% of its funds to Labor-held electorates, the Federal Opposition has now written to the Auditor General requesting an investigation into two specific programs.
Of the $107M in grants that has been allocated under the MLCIP, $95.9M has been allocated to Labor held electorates. Indeed, five projects worth more than $21m have been funded in Labor’s Eden-Monaro alone, which is more funding in one Labor seat than the funding into non-Labor seats nationally combined.
Shadow Assistant Infrastructure Minister Ben Small MP said that “This data has exposed Catherine King as the Queen of pork barrelling, and as much of a hypocrite as the Prime Minister himself.”
When in opposition, Minister King described similar programs as an “industrial scale pork barrelling plot” and went on to proclaim that under the Albanese Government that there were “no more colour-coded spreadsheets and no more pork barrelling”.
Mr Small went on to say that “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is repeatedly exposing himself as a leader who fails the tests of his own word, which he promised Australians would be his bond.”
Mr Albanese might have forgotten that in 2020, he said:
“What we've seen here is a program with no guidelines, $150 million of taxpayers' money abused for political purposes, where the only guidelines were the electoral map and the political interests of the government” (Anthony Albanese, 7 February 2020, Canberra Times)
“His own words expose this Prime Minister as a fraud and a liar.” Mr Small said, before continuing to argue that “Programs of this design carry an inherent risk that allocation decisions are driven by partisan electoral considerations rather than assessed need. That risk is not theoretical: it is the central finding of a series of ANAO performance audits into grant administration over the past decade at least, and it is the reason the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles 2024 introduced new key principles on merit-based processes and clearer criteria for the use of one-off ad hoc grants.”
“If the Prime Minister’s word really is his bond, and Minister King has nothing to hide, then the Government should support this referral to the Auditor-General. Labor came to government promising gold-standard transparency and have instead taken a lead from Dan Andrews in concealing information and obfuscating at every turn”
“We are not demanding evidence that Labor meet our standards but rather demanding that they meet the standard they set themselves in the years before being elected - loudly.”
The Auditor General has confirmed they’re considering the request.
ENDS