Yet here we are again. Less than a year on from the last federal and NSW elections,and the addiction looks unbreakable. The latest lapse,theHerald reported on the weekend,might just be a $24 million state and federal “grassroots sport” grant,repurposed by “mammoth pokies-funded” Panthers group,to instead fund a “conference centre and underground carpark”.
The club sits within the highly contested state electorate of Penrith,and the battleground federal seat of Lindsay. Poker machine revenue,according to theHerald,contributes $66 million per year to Panthers’ total $150 million income. Nothing “grassroots” about this club’s margins. And nothing exceptional either.
October 2019 figures from the NSW Office of Liquor and Gaming revealed poker machine profits in NSW pubs and clubs had increased to $6.5 billion in the year prior. NSW Treasury analysis projects the state’s residents will gamble $85 billion on poker machines over the next decade,of which $22.5 billion will be picked-up by Treasury in gaming machine tax. Swings and roundabouts.
No one directly involved in the Penrith “grassroots” grant has,to date,gone on record. When political figures are compelled to speak on allegations of pork barrelling,they almost always deny they have problem.
“Every single one of the projects approved was eligible,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison replied when asked on January 20 this year to explain his then minister,Bridget McKenzie’s management of grants,pre-election,to community sports groups. “No rules were broken,” he concluded.
But rules were broken. Least of all,McKenzie approved funds for a club of which she was a member. That technicality cost the minister her cabinet spot. Distributing public money with the aid of a partisan shaded briefing,however? No foul. Phew! Anyone got a light?