[Greens-Media] Sweetheart deal with NSW clubs savaged by Auditor-General

[John Kaye]

Sweetheart deal with NSW clubs savaged by Auditor-General

Media Release: 2 May 2013

The Greens are calling for the O'Farrell government to fully implement all of the Auditor-General's recommendations on the management of the ClubGRANTS and bring to an end the appalling lack of appropriate transparency or accountability.

Greens NSW MP John Kaye said: "Over the past 11 years, successive governments, Labor and Coalition, have allowed $417 million of tax funds to be managed without appropriate guidelines or accountability.

"It is extraordinary that more than a decade has passed without a thorough investigation of the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars of what should have been public funds.

"The Auditor-General has savaged the management of the scheme. A large proportion of the $417 million was spent without appropriate levels of accountability. It is highly plausible that this money did not end up where it was supposed to.

"ClubGRANTS effectively cost the state the equivalent of 20 new high schools or two large public hospitals. The scheme appears to have failed the ultimate test of what would a state government been able to do with that amount of money.

"The Auditor-General has highlighted what has gone wrong in accountability and control over the scheme. What he has not explained is why this appalling situation has been allowed to develop.

"Both the former Labor Government and its Coalition successor spent too much time appeasing the politically powerful registered clubs lobby and too little time protecting the public's interest in this revenue stream.

"ClubGRANTS was always more about delivering a favour to the politically powerful registered clubs lobby than about providing community facilities and other benefits. The absence of accountability measures is yet more evidence that this scheme is a pork barrel.

"In a state obsessed with cutting its budget deficit, it is extraordinary that the ClubGRANTS scheme has escaped the Treasurer's knife while TAFE is losing 800 jobs.

"The Auditor-General has exposed the category 3 ClubGRANTS as a state government slush fund worth $8 million a year. The money should be in the budget, not hived off to a separate account where, until now, it has escaped scrutiny," Dr Kaye said.

John Kaye
Greens NSW MP

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Mail: Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

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