Pork-barrelling is unfair and wasteful. Here’s a plan to end it

The Coalition’s carpark announcements before the 2019 election are among the best-known cases of pork-barrelling Shutterstock

From sports rorts to regional slush funds and commuter carparks, it’s been one scandal after another in Australian politics in recent years. But what can we actually do to stop politicians pork-barrelling?

A new Grattan Institute report, released today, shows the problem isn’t confined to one side of politics: both Coalition and Labor governments, at federal and state levels, use government grants for political purposes. But there is a way to stop them from doing it again.