This is part five in a series. For the rest of the series, go here.
One day, when the book is written on the corruption of Australian politics, there will need to be a section devoted to the four months which preceded the May 2019 election. It was during this period that, among other things, the Morrison government gave $4.6 million in grants to the Pentecostal-linked Esther Foundation, with funds drawn, magically, from grants schemes run by the government.
As we’ve revealed this week, the prime minister was front and centre, unveiling the grant in person to Esther — an organisation which shares Morrison’s particular religious beliefs and sits in the marginal seat of Hasluck, then held by the Coalition’s Ken Wyatt by just 2.1%.
It is only now that serious allegations are emerging relating to how young women were treated inside the Esther facility, raising pointed questions about how and why the grants came to be approved.
How much money was poured into just one seat?
Crikey has reconstructed a piece of the four months that helped save Hasluck.
January 2019: The government awards a $630,000 grant to the Esther Foundation, through the Safer Communities Fund, signed off by then-home affairs minister Peter Dutton.
Late February/early March 2019: a $4 million grant is approved for the Esther Foundation. According to the federal Health Department the foundation applied for the grant “in February” directly through the office of Minister Greg Hunt. It was a “non-competitive selection process”. The Health Department says the grant was approved on March 7, the day it was announced by the prime minister on a visit to Perth.
April 2019: local member Ken Wyatt announces more than $405,000 in grants from the government’s Community Sport Infrastructure Grant program, aka the sports rorts fund. This includes funding for tennis courts, basketball courts and bowling greens in his electorate.
Wyatt also trumpets earlier sports grants made from the same fund, for the Mundaring Tennis Club ($150,460) the Forrestfield Rhinos Rugby Club ($180,000) and the Mundaring Hardcourts ($245,791).
It emerges that Wyatt’s seat along with the independent-held seat of Indi received among the highest levels of funding in Australia. Wyatt won his seat with an increased majority and now holds it with a margin 5.4%.
KA-CHING! The grants we have been able to track total $5.6 million.
So where was the PM in all this?
A standout feature of the pre-election period of 2019 is that no politician has paid a serious price for the large-scale abuse of public funds. Sports rorts’ Bridget McKenzie was the unlucky one and was dispatched to the backbench, though oh so briefly.
In the sports rorts case it emerged that the prime minister’s office and McKenzie’s office had exchanged more than 100 emails on the grants distribution between October 2018 and April 2019 when the election was called.
Despite the email frenzy up to and beyond the final hours of executive government, no evidence emerged that Morrison had been personally involved. The same applies to other funds which were later found to be used as slush funds for marginal seats. In the case of the Urban Congestion Fund, it emerged that staffers from Minister Alan Tudge’s office had put together a list of the country’s 20 most marginal seats.
In the case of the Esther Foundation millions, however, Morrison was very much present. He fronted up and spoke in a highly personal way about the public money he was giving to the foundation: “I don’t invest in projects that don’t work,” he told the women of Esther. At times he really does hold a hose.
Crime and punishment
So what are some comparisons?
Bridget McKenzie failed to declare her membership of the Wangaratta Clay target club which had received $36,000 in public money from the fund McKenzie administered. (McKenzie made that grant just 10 days before Morrison journeyed to Wyatt’s seat to make his own announcement.)
In NSW Gladys Berejiklian has come to grief over some $35 million in grants to the seat of Wagga, with evidence showing her secret amour, Wagga MP Daryl Maguire, had lobbied for the funds.
Morrison had a clear role in making a $4 million grant to Esther based on a highly questionable and murky process which saw the grant processed and agreed to within at most four weeks.
Corruption doesn’t need to be personal to warrant an inquiry by the likes of ICAC. It can also be about systems.
No wonder Morrison wants nothing to do with a federal ICAC. But if faith in government means anything there should be an independent inquiry into the Esther grants.
Do you have information about the Esther Foundation? You can share it with David Hardaker at dhardaker@protonmail.com or via Signal on +61 431421056. All correspondence will be treated in confidence and you will be contacted prior to any publication.
