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a private shooting gallery...

grantgrant

The $5.5 million grant to fund a 1,000-person convention centre at a gun club in Wagga Wagga was the only one – of over 90 grants – in the NSW Murray-Riverina region that went to a non-government entity.

The revelations come as it has been officially confirmed that it was new NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet – not Gladys Berejiklian, who has resigned over the scandal – that signed off on the $5.5 million grant at the heart of the NSW corruption watchdog’s investigations.

NSW Government documents reveal that at June 2019, 92 grants, totalling $153.8 million, had been made to fund infrastructure projects in the Murray-Riverina region, under the Restart NSW program.

The only grant that went to a non-government entity was the $5.5 million that Perrottet awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association in Wagga Wagga, about 250 kilometres west of Canberra.

Of the 92 Murray Riverina grants, 90 went to local councils, mostly under a “fixing country roads” project and one went to the public Charles Sturt University — a $1 million grant to fund an equestrian centre.

The spotlight has fallen on Perrottet, now NSW Premier, after The Klaxon on Tuesday revealed that as NSW Treasurer it was his responsibility to approve or reject the $5.5 million grant to the Australian Clay Target Association in Wagga Wagga.

The Klaxon has since obtained official confirmation it was Perrottet who personally signed off on the gun club grant in August 2017.

The explosive revelations shed remarkable new light on the controversy, which has up-ended the NSW Government and is the focus of ongoing public hearings by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The revelations are particularly extraordinary because Perrottet has been NSW Premier for just two weeks.

He was sworn in on 5 October, after Berejiklian resigned both as Premier and from NSW Parliament entirely when ICAC revealed on 1 October that she was being investigated in the scandal.

Perrottet has not been named by ICAC as being investigated, only Berejiklian and former long-time Wagga Wagga NSW MP Daryl Maguire.

Perrottet’s office declined to provide on-the-record quotes.

ICAC is yet to make any findings and Berejiklian has said she “always acted with the highest level of integrity”.

Last year, in an earlier ICAC public hearing, it emerged that Berejiklian had been in a secret relationship with Maguire from at least 2015 until August 2020.

In 2018, Maguire was forced to resign from parliament after an ICAC investigation found he had sought secret payments from a major Chinese property developer.

On Tuesday, The Klaxon revealed that the $5.5 million gun club grant has been signed off in August 2017 despite it being “unusual” and the NSW Office of Sport not wanting “any involvement” in the project, according to internal government emails.

On July 8, 2017, Jenny Davis of Infrastructure NSW wrote to seven colleagues, across three NSW Government departments.

Davis wrote:

'The project is unusual... The ERC [Expenditure Review Committee] minute approved it before we had ever heard of it. Our recommendation doesn’t need to go back to the ERC, but it does need the Treasurer to approve it.'

Regarding the gun club proposal, Davis wrote:

'We need to ensure that the funding goes to public infrastructure, not private assets on private land.'

The Australian Clay Target Association allows entry to members of the public, but it is a private entity and is situated on land that it privately owns.

 

Read more: https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/further-details-emerge-as-premier-perrottet-linked-to-icac-gun-club-grant,15665

 

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love is in...

You may not know... but I'm sure you know that the Murdoch media is in love with anything rightwing until some rightwinger falls on his/HER sword... to be replaced by another rightwing dude... The Murdoch media will support our dithering ScoMo until the next century...

 

So the clean cut Perrottet, himself up to his elbows in the Gladys "I'll fix it" saga, is a fantasic family man who is worried about finding housing for his million kids, in a market costing the earth...

 

DTs...DTs...

 

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perrottet signed off on the pork barrel...

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has ordered a review into pork barrelling.

The review will examine how grants programs in NSW are administered, to ensure that public money is spent fairly, effectively and transparently, the government says.

“Taxpayers expect the distribution of funds will be fair, I share that expectation,” Mr Perrottet said in a statement on Wednesday.

 

“Every dollar from NSW taxpayers is important.”

The initiative comes just days after an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry focusing on the role of former premier Gladys Berejiklian, in awarding funding to projects in her secret boyfriend’s electorate.

Mr Perrottet has sought to distance himself from his predecessor’s defence of pork barrelling.

Ms Berejiklian told ICAC it would not be a surprise to anybody “that we throw money at seats to keep them”.

Questioned last year about the $252 million Stronger Communities Fund grant scheme for councils that was used for pork barrelling, Ms Berejiklian said it was widespread and “not an illegal practice”.

“It’s not unique to our government,” she said.

Analysis of that program revealed 19 in every 20 projects funded in the lead-up to the 2019 NSW election were in coalition-held seats.

Mr Perrottet said on Sunday he “completely disagreed” with pork barrelling.

 

“My belief is that whatever community you are in, you should have the access to the best healthcare, education, and transport to get to your family faster,” he told reporters.

The review, to be finished by April 2022, will be led by the Department of Premier and Cabinet, with Productivity Commissioner Peter Achterstraat helping out.

They’ll examine whether NSW grants programs achieve value for public money, have robust planning and design, and adopt key principles of transparency, accountability and probity.

Guidelines from best practice jurisdictions, recommendations from NSW parliamentary inquiries and other bodies, and the existing NSW policy and legislative context will be considered.

A 2010 guide for government departments on good grants practice will be updated as well.

“From sports facilities to welfare services, COVID support packages and small business assistance, grants are critical to so many people and play a vital role in enhancing quality of life and our economy,” Mr Perrottet said on Wednesday.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/nsw/2021/11/03/nsw-government-pork-barrelling-review/

 

Read from top. Note that the Gladys pork barrel with her "friend" was for a PRIVATE deal, signed off by PERROTTET... His new stance is cute...

 

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corruption galore...

Not only Perrottet should be called by ICAC to explain why he signed on a private development on private land when the grant rules specify public works for the general public, but some of the Maguire deceit and corruption go beyond this case...

 

A key witness in the NSW corruption watchdog’s inquiry into disgraced ex-MP Daryl Maguire was granted a travel exemption by Australian Border Force that allowed her to leave the country a month before she was due to give evidence.

Migration agent Monica Hao, 58, was summonsed to appear before the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on September 16 as part of its investigation into a cash-for-visa scheme linked to the former member for Wagga Wagga.

 

Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/witness-in-icac-probe-into-daryl-maguire-was-granted-exemption-to-leave-australia-20211104-p595vk.html

 

 

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a bit late...

When it comes to unity tickets, the Liberals and Greens are not usual bedfellows. But NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, just a month into the top job, was clearly willing to throw caution to the wind.

 

Appearing on Thursday before his first budget estimates hearing as the leader of the government, Perrottet assured the Greens senator-in-waiting David Shoebridge that the pair were on the same page when it comes to how public money is spent.

Upper house MLC Shoebridge, who will leave Macquarie Street to contest a seat in the Senate when the federal election is called, had a simple question for Perrottet. Should pork barrelling be illegal?

Perrottet did not rule it out. “I’ll seek advice, but we are on a unity ticket in ensuring there is public confidence and that government spending is not made for political purposes, or partisan decisions, but in the best interest of the state,” he told budget estimates.

 

Shoebridge pressed Perrottet on whether he would condone “the use of public money for the purposes of benefitting the political party in power rather than the public good”.

Perrottet’s response? “That should not happen”. Discussions of pork barrelling have overshadowed the new premier’s agenda since the former leader Gladys Berejiklian fronted the Independent Commission Against Corruption as chief protagonist.

Berejiklian, who stepped down as premier on October 1 when the ICAC revealed it would hold a public inquiry into her conduct, was under investigation over whether she breached the public trust through her refusal to declare her five-year romantic relationship with disgraced MP Daryl Maguire.

The probe looked at whether Berejiklian encouraged corrupt conduct during their secret love affair and whether she failed to report suspected corruption involving the former MP for Wagga Wagga. However, beyond the revelations of love, marriage and even a potential baby, the ICAC also lifted the lid on how public money is spent and how marginal electorates are won over with splashes of cash.

 

Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/bringing-home-the-bacon-perrottet-faces-grilling-over-pork-barrelling-20211104-p59657.html

 

It seems that the media has forgotten that Perrottet signed on the spending of 5.5 million on the shooting club, which he should have know was not eligible, because "it was a private development on private land". His signature was corrupt. He should be called up to ICAC.

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

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part of the duo...

Whatever the New South Wales ICAC does or does not find about Gladys Berejiklian, there is a distinct possibility (or at least a decent hope) that Operation Keppel will mark the start of improved probity in the use of taxpayers’ money for political ends.

And about time. What is euphemistically called “pork barrelling” has ballooned into a multibillion-dollar cancer within Australian politics over the past half dozen years, a corruption of public trust as politicians brazenly seek to buy votes, to look after those who look after them.

If the price of turning the corner on flagrant rorting is Gladys Berejiklian’s political head, it is a price worth paying.

 

Along with maintaining public confidence in her government during the pandemic, helping draw a line under pork barrelling could be Ms Berejiklian’s great political legacy – not that she might like to think of it that way.

This potential resurrection of government integrity depends first on the integrity of Ms Berejiklian’s replacement as NSW Premier, Dominic Perrottet.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2021/11/09/gladys-icac/

 

 

Gus: Perrottet is already deep into the Gladys fiasco, as apparently he is the one who signed on the spending of 5.5 million on the shooting club, which he should have known was not eligible, because "it was a private development on private land". His signature was corrupt. He should be called up to ICAC.

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW,,,,••••••!!!!