Federal minister Catherine King is hoping rigorous work and scrutiny will start to restore Ballarat residents' trust in the federal government, particularly in the wake of pork-barrelling scandals.
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The Ballarat MP said it was critical to start rebuilding this trust through a transparent grants process.
"I think it is pretty clear pork-barreling actually undermines democracy by favouring some electorates over others," Ms King told The Courier.
"I am reviewing decisions that the previous government made, because they did not pass the budget bills through the parliament."
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Ms King is also reviewing the next round of funding as part of the Building Better Region Funds.
The BBRF has come under pressure after the Australian National Audit Office found issues with how grants were chosen.
Out of the 1293 projects funded over five rounds, 179 decisions of the panel were not recorded.
A total of 164 projects that were given a "high degree of merit" were not funded, and 15 projects which were not recommended were given funding.
"It is very clear that the distribution of that fund was not even across the country," Ms King said.
"Ministers actually tried to avoid grant guidelines in order to be able to continue to pork-barrel."
Ms King said she knew many communities put a lot of time into their applications for BBRF.
"I am not confident, in any way shape or form, that the program has not been distorted by previous government decisions."
Ms King said she was working to make the process transparent and fair.
That might include "independent panels or departmental assessment" and will certainly include following the Department of Finance guidelines, and publishing reasons and explanations if ministers deviate from recommendations.
"There are clear Commonwealth grant guidelines, there might need to be some small changes to that, the problem is they have not been followed," she said.
A recent Grattan Institute report said most of the federal grant rules were "not enforced or are unenforceable".
"The buck stops with the prime minister, which means the final decision on whether there are consequences for pork-barrelling rests with a politician," the report said.
Ms King said the National Audit Office had a clear role of auditing government programs and we had "seen ministers lose their jobs" over affairs like "sport rots".
"I think it was pretty clear at the ballot box at the last election that the previous government was punished for that ... we have had enough of this sort of wasteful spending."
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