(Image: Tom Red/Private Media)

Federal ministers are continuing to duck questions and defend their maladministration of a project to fund commuter car parks which funnelled millions of dollars to Coalition-held seats ahead of the 2019 election. 

At a spillover Senate estimates hearing yesterday, the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) executive director Brian Boyd confirmed staff in then urban infrastructure minister Alan Tudge’s office allocated the funding by devising a list of the top 20 marginal electorates and consulting Coalition MPs and candidates.

Tudge’s office did not respond to Crikey’s requests for comment. He has not spoken about the issue since the auditor-general’s report was released three weeks ago. But current Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher has repeatedly stepped up to back the rorting of the Urban Congestion Fund (UCF). Speaking to ABC’s 7.30 last night, he said funding for car parks was based on need. 

But the ANAO confirmed some funded car parks weren’t even on a train line. And its report showed 87% were either in Liberal-held electorates or target seats. That coincidence came about because both Tudge and Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office were heavily involved in canvassing with Liberal MPs in those marginal seats. Fletcher said that’s all just part of ministerial responsibility.

“The minister for urban infrastructure has responsibility in this area,” he said. “This is all part of the infrastructure investment program and under the National Land Transport Act decisions are made by the government of the day, in this case the minister for urban infrastructure.”

Fletcher’s comments are consistent with the Coalition’s line on the UCF: the rorting was justified because ministers can spend money how they like, and doubly justified because, as Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said earlier this month, it won the election.

That defence was on full display yesterday, with Coalition senators arguing Labor rorted too, and appearing to attack the auditor-general’s report. Queensland Liberal National Party Senator Gerard Rennick, who participated in the hearing, said the ANAO “had no idea” what it was doing.

“Australians want infrastructure built ASAP and instead they get bureaucrats who use smoke and mirrors to delay infrastructure rollouts,” he tweeted. “Feasibility studies are being carried out before money is being spent so due process is occurring.”

Except the auditor-general’s report found that by March this year construction had begun on just 11% of the funded projects. As Crikey reported, a car park in Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s marginal seat of Dickson cost $81,000 a space but has not been started. 

The delay in that case was in part because an existing funding proposal from the Queensland state government had to be rewritten. Boyd yesterday said the Coalition had failed to engage with state and local governments when deciding which projects to fund.

How can the Coalition hope to get away with this? What do you think? Write to letters@crikey.com.au and please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say section.