Jobs for the boys but not the people who needed them
23rd September, 2011
“DAMNING revelations about the Infrastructure Employment Projects from the Auditor-General overnight have exposed a culture of cavalier unaccountability and rank incompetence at the highest levels of the Gillard government,” Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Warren Truss lamented today.“Can this government get any worse? A job scheme to put Australians to work and stave off the 2009 global economic downturn but failed to create a single job until August 2010. Yet, taxpayers will still cough up $138.6 million to fund it.
“Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese failed basic due diligence. There was not even a formal application process. The Minister bypassed scrutiny by his department to stack the shortlist with his preferred projects, as well as those nominated by then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan.
“In fact, 17 of the 19 shortlisted projects carried the shameful nudge-nudge, wink-wink imprimatur of one of these three men.
“The Auditor-General also found that, in hand-picking the 12 eventual winners, Minister Albanese failed the government’s own value-for-money test and did not, as required, target areas of high unemployment. Not one of the 12 projects was funded in a Priority Employment Area, which was the entire purpose of the scheme.
“Instead, what we have is a disgraceful $82.7 million slush fund for marginal seats and the pet projects of mates.
“And, after all that conniving, the 1,000 immediate jobs that this stimulus was supposed to create did not eventuate. Not one single job was created during the economic downturn.
“The Auditor-General’s report is scathing, noting:
‘despite the April 2009 announcement of the IEP stream stating that the funding of construction of local infrastructure would create immediate jobs in communities affected by the global economic downturn, it was not until August 2010 that any project proponent reported to Infrastructure that an IEP stream project had created or retained any jobs.’
“To make matters worse, on top of the initial $82.7 million, another $55.9 million is coming down the pork-barrel pipeline over 2011-12 to bolster these dodgy projects.
“I don’t know which is sadder. That another chapter has been added to Labor’s hefty tome of ineptitude and mismanagement or that we’re hardly surprised anymore?”
[ENDS]
