IIA-Australia Factsheet - Pork Barrelling

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Author	IIA-Australia
Date	2022
Topics Explored	Governance
Format	Factsheet
Extract/Description	To say someone is using ‘pork barrel politics’ means government is spending public money raised from all taxpayers on programs to influence the votes of people who live in the political electorate to receive the benefit. A feature of many pork barrel projects is they are ‘white elephant’ projects (something expensive and useless) that are wasteful and will be under-utilised in the long-term.
Key Points	Pork barrelling means other more deserving people miss out because of partisan political interference. Pork barrelling is typically not illegal where expenditure is made and authorised within financial legislative, regulatory and administrative requirements for the jurisdiction and ministerial codes of conduct are observed. Ministers can expose themselves to allegations of wrongdoing when they exercise discretion and ignore departmental advice on the merits of program applications.
Relevant Industries	All
Level of Assumed Knowledge	Intermediate