"A football club in the Victorian Liberal-held marginal seat of La Trobe received a $500,000 grant despite having an assessment score of 50 out of 100, when a roller derby upgrade in the safe Nationals seat of Gippsland did not get a cent despite its 98 rating."
This example means that a National party minister agreed to funding to a less deserving case in a Liberal party seat, while doing some of the National party's most loyal and merit worthy (according to Sports Aust) voters in the eye for another party's interests.
The kicker: “According to the metadata in the spreadsheet, among those who had edited the document obtained by the ABC was Jonathan Hawkes, a long-time Liberal Party operative.” Hawkes was working for Mckenzie as a media advisor at the time.
Hawkes has also been recently appointed Nationals federal director. Why was a media advisor editing the sheet? Did some clubs make it to the approved list only to fail at the final hurdle because their seats were too safe?
smh.com.au/politics/feder…
smh.com.au/politics/feder…
Whatever the reason, the scandal begs the question, what is the National party for exactly? Who is the National party working for? Not their voters, by the looks of it. Are they there to hold a parking spot for the Liberal party, as John Howard once said?
The fact that Gippsland is a safe National seat has nothing to do with whether the roller derby was worthy. Nationals seats are some of the poorest in the country (a fact often ignored in the parliamentary voting patterns of the Nats).
Nat seats are also some of the safest in the country. The irony of #sportsrorts is this is yet another example of Nats sending a message to its voters that if they want their seat to matter they have to make them marginal.
The obvious eg was Mallee, where Andrew Broad was retiring and subsequently experienced a spike in funding closer to the election with a number of indies in the field. theguardian.com/australia-news…
And finally, almost as bad as the bastardisation of a govt process and taxpayer $, is that these community clubs, usually run by volunteers in some of the smallest towns, have been dragged through the mud for the sake of a rigged process. The End.
P.S. But I could not say it better than the Betoota Advocate.
And magically...“My life membership and former role as chairman of my local club – almost 20 years ago – is unrelated to the minister’s visit or awarding of any federal grant.” theguardian.com/australia-news…
