Rorts Watch
Tracking the schemes, scams, and squandered millions that hard-working Australians keep paying for. Updated as the receipts come in.
NDIS Fraud
Unchecked rorting and corruption by some NDIS providers has jeopardised the future of the scheme and threatened its availability to those with legitimate needs.
Major parties reward themselves with election financing
Finance reform bill passes with no scrutiny, expenditure capped at $90m
Rich sports handouts
Brisbane Broncos get $5m for training centre, West Coast Eagles $10m, Collingwood AFL $15m, Sydney Swans $15m, Clay Target Assn $5.5M for convention centre – all clubs making healthy profits.
‘Cabinet’ a nonsense
Justice White rules FOI does not apply because National Cabinet is not a real cabinet, opens way for discovering what’s behind ‘gas-led recovery’ spend.
Car Parks
$660.4 million spent on commuter car parks with 77% in LNP or would-be LNP seats, picked by LNP senators and candidates. No policy objectives or assessment on merit.
Water rights
Update 19/3 Auditor-General asking why the $13m overspend on water.$80m to buy non-existent water rights from previously Angus Taylor-controlled offshore entity, approved by Barnaby Joyce
Sports rorts
Update 19/3 Senate Select Committee inquiry reports on political lines, unlikely to deliver reform.$102.5 million handed out grants with no legal authority, by-passing proper process to largely benefit marginal electorates and well-heeled clubs
Lib pollster paid for secret research
Jim Reed, Liberal Party polster with Crosby Textor paid $500k for NCCC market research that can’t be made public. No tender.
Assistant Treasurer overclaims
Stuart Robert claimed $2k/month for internet expenses.
Sharma insider trades
Liberal MP Dave Sharma bought shares in Qantas just as the announcement was made to provide a relief package of $715m to the airlines. Months later, just before Morrison agreed with CSL to make millions of doses of a Covid vaccine, Sharma bought CSL shares.
Staffer made ACCC commissioner
11/12 Peter Crone, former adviser to PM Howard, gave economic advice costing $136k and in Dec. appointed to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Marketing deal for insider
Richard Forbes, former media adviser to the Nationals, wins $189 bid for spin on how well the bushfire recovery is going. No tender.
$10m for Visy stacker
Visy donated $3m, about 1/2 each to the Libs and Labor before the 2019 election. The $10m for the stacker was paid out of the bushfire recovery fund.
Off to the races on public purse
9/12 57 MPs travelled to, in, or from Melbourne around the time of the 2019 Melbourne Cup. Deputy PM, Michael McCormack, and wife used government jet into Tabcorp’s Melbourne Cup party justifying the trip by re-announcing a 3-year-old grant for a sports hall.
PM, Treasurer party trip
4/11 Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg took a taxpayer-funded flight in a private jet to Lachlan Murdoch’s Christmas party costing $5k. Parliamentary business? Unlikely. Vested interest, probably.
Lap dancers, wine, non-existent staff
27/11 WA Corruption and Crime Commission reports former MP Phil Edman impeded investigation and used taxpayer funds for strip club, wine tours, employee who didn’t turn up to work for 7 years.
Berejiklian says rorts OK
27/11Berejiklian actually says all governments and all oppositions make commitments to the community in order to curry favour. That’s part of the political process whether we like it or not. Documents approving Stronger Communities Grants to local councils worth $250m shredded by NSW Premier’s office
NCCC conflict of interests secret
The COVID-19 Coordination Commissioners have made declarations of conflicts of interest but these will not be made public. Chair, Nev Power and Deputy, Andrew Liveris, pushing gas interests.
NSW Airport rort
Update 19/11 Morrison government refuses to comply with Senate order to produce 10 briefs on the controversial purchase. Land at Badgery Creek worth $3m purchased for $30m. Owners of the land donated $176,600 to the Liberal Party
Bribes paid to councillors for rezoning
Lobbyists linked to ALP and Libs were paid $500k each and Casey councillors bribed by a property developer to get chicken farm zoned for housing in Cranbourne South. Property developer donated to the ALP before the last election. Land value increased from $73k to $550m.
Jobs for the boys at AAT
Attorneys General Porter and Brandis appointed 70 former MPs and staffers to the AAT. Appointee and former staffer, Tony Barry, admits to having been kicked out of law school.
International job for Treasurer
Mathias Cormann resigned from Parliament to bid for OECD chief but taxpayers paid for his 21,000km in private jet flights around Europe @$4,300/hour for him and 8 government staff. As at 7 Feb he was in the shortlist of 5 for the $300k/year tax free salary.
Chris Pyne gets lucrative defence consultancies
Former Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne waited the requisite 18 months exclusion period but now lobbies on behalf of big defence contractors Elbit Systems, Saber Astronautics, Droneshield, and Ethan Group -mmajor suppliers to the ADF and. while still in Cabinet. negotiated work with EY consultants.
Palmer again
Clive Palmer lies about ‘Labor’s death tax’ in the Queensland State Election. Will likely spend the max allowed under new Qld caps on donations and election spending, hoping his business interests will benefit from an LNP Government.
Vic rail execs on the take
Fleet Manager of Metro Trains and V/Line CEO pocket ~$150k each from cleaning company to cover up poor performance.
Top 40 tax dodgers
Michael West lists the latest companies that make huge profits and pay little or nothing in tax and the fossil fuel sector is well-represented! ExxonMobil made over $42b over 5 years and paid zero tax.
Daryl Maguire
Dodgy property and immigration deals, peddling access to Premier
ASIC Chair rorting
ASIC Chair, James Shipton and his deputy paid $180,000 to relocate and manage personal tax affairs and this is the regulator!
Aust Post watches
Update: Govt settles unfair dismissal. $12k spent on four Cartier watches for execs – the latest in a long list of executive gifts. Post claims it is a commercial entity even though wholly owned by the Commonwealth. Board is stacked with Liberal party leaders and former MPs.
Jobkeeper rorts
JobKeeper payments used to pay dividends to shareholders and executive bonuses
Foxtel bailout
Foxtel received $40m overall for its flagging subscription TV service, supposedly to broadcast women’s sport. Foxtel is Murdoch-owned which relentlessly promotes the Coalition. Arguably the Coalition’s NBN rollout to the node made it slower and less of a threat to subscription TV. ABC must pay for licensing fee to rebroadcast.
General Covid prok-barrelling
Billions spent on projects – regional swimming pools, Regional Growth Fund, Building Better Regions Fund, Urban Congestion Fund, Regional Jobs and Investment Package – which were overwhelmingly in Liberal seats and/or had dodgy approvals process.
Drought Communities Program
Of the 14 councils awarded funds under this program, 6 did not meet the agricultural employment threshold, 7 did not meet the rainfall deficiency threshold but were awarded the $1m each anyway, 13 councils were in coalition seats
Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream
No guidelines, no tender process, no application form. Some recipients first heard about it in the local paper.
Update 19/3 Senate Select Committee inquiry reports on political lines$102.5 million handed out grants with no legal authority, by-passing proper process to largely benefit marginal electorates and well-heeled clubs
Lies about flights
Angus Taylor falsely claimed the City of Sydney spent $15m on air travel when it was only $6k but the document relied upon cannot be found
Aust Border Force
$39m ‘fee’ handed out to boat builder Austal to prop up failing business. Austral donated $20k to the Liberal party.
$1.3b arms deal
Government goes to extraordinary lengths to suppress Auditor General’s report showing cheaper options
Robodebt
Centrelink raises ~$2billion in unlawful debts using income averaging. Brought in debt collectors causing great anxiety. Delays in payments. No apology, no acknowledgement of the damage to victims.
Great Barrier Reef fund
Coalition awarded $430m contract to small, Liberal Party-connected organisation despite an existing, established and well-credentialed group applying for funds. (Real problem for reef is global warming.)
Helloworld holiday
Helloworld travel agency paid for Finance Minister Mathias Cormann’s family holiday to Singapore within two weeks of the Coalition awarding Helloworld a Government contract worth over $1billion. Andrew Burnes, Liberal Party treasurer is major shareholder of Helloworld.
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Spotted a rort that should be on this list? Email info@democrats.org.au .
Newsflash: We’re working on refreshing Rorts Watch! Keep your eyes peeled! If you want to join us in our fight against government rorts and corruption, why not join us ? The rorts shown are from our archives as we test our rorts-fighting system!
A rort is all about manipulating the system to gain a wrongful advantage.
As a verb, rort means to swindle or dupe. Part of Aussie slang since at least the 1910s, rort is a backformation from rorter . It is now commonly used in reference to election rigging, embezzlement, and other dodgy practices indulged in by the nation’s movers and shakers. In this sense, the word is hardly slang any more but carries serious implications for anyone who finds their face plastered on the front page of a newspaper with rort written above their heads. Macquarie Dictionary
This list is by no means comprehensive, but it’s our attempt to keep track of rorts undertaken by our political leaders across all jurisdictions in Australia.
Know about a rort that’s not on this list? Let us know!
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