A review of the New South Wales government’s grants spend has recommended against making pork-barrelling a criminal offence, instead arguing grants administrators should document when ministers and politicians try to influence the grants process.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, asked the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the productivity commissioner, Peter Achterstraat, to review grants in the state in November last year, after his predecessor, Gladys Berejiklian, gave evidence to the state’s anti-corruption watchdog that the government “threw money at seats to keep them” and grants were made to help win votes.
