Labor must come clean on its secret community grants process

 

Rebecca White and Labor must come clean on their secretive community grants process.

What was the process? Who decided what to fund? Were conflicts of interests managed? Will they all be publicly announced – if not, why not?

The Liberal Party has been crystal clear in the process we undertook, including publicly releasing the detail of all commitments yesterday, consistent with the recommendations of the Integrity Commission:

“When made, such promises should be backed by policy, and must be publicised to all of the electorate – not just the intended recipients.” (Paper 2, Grants Commitments in Election Campaign, April 2022).

In contrast, Labor has:

  1. Informed recipients via secret letter – see for example this letter here from Ms White to the New Norfolk Mayor.
  2. Announce funding via their candidate’s facebook page – eg their “Plan for Lilydale”.
  3. Made private announcements to organisations in person.

Labor’s process has failed the Integrity Commission’s test.

As always with Labor, look not at what they say, but at what they actually do.