# Did the PM dabble in pork barrelling?

An episode of [7am](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1461999702), 11 Sep 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/62723a1f-3e96-4fc4-882c-b25e0181da4d/474dd8a0-4065-48e2-aecd-b4c2005056f5/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=70f29d90-2a63-48aa-bf8f-b25e0181da70

In 2020 Anthony Albanese called for the sacking of then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie over her involvement in the infamous sports rorts – which he labelled a farce. Not long after, she resigned. But now that similar pork barrelling claims have been levelled at the Prime Minister, he’s come out swinging – refusing to admit any wrong-doing over his failure to declare membership at a golf club which received a six million dollar grant. Also coming out swinging this week was Andrew Hastie. The Liberal MP delivered a masterclass in how to take on One Nation as he labelled Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce lying cowards over a party-backed cartoon calling him a traitor. Today, press gallery veteran Paul Bongiorno on a fiery week in parliament, and who came off second best. If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Press gallery veteran Paul Bongiorno Photo: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: This is a farce, and it's about time that Bridget
[0:03] Speaker 1: McKenzie resigned her position, and if she won't do that,
[0:07] Speaker 1: the Prime Minister should sack her. The only thing that
[0:10] Speaker 1: could possibly.
[0:10] Speaker 2: That was Anthony Albanese in 2020, not long before the
[0:14] Speaker 2: Sports Minister, Bridget McKenzie, was forced to resign over her
[0:17] Speaker 2: involvement in the infamous sports rorts. But now that similar
[0:21] Speaker 2: pork-barrelling claims have been levelled at the PM, he's come
[0:24] Speaker 2: out swinging.
[0:25] Speaker 3: So should you have declared this, though, or did you
[0:27] Speaker 3: just not even know that you were an honorary member?
[0:29] Speaker 4: No.
[0:30] Speaker 1: No, how would I? 15 years ago, someone decided to say, oh,
[0:34] Speaker 1: we'll make him an honorary member. I don't have a card.
[0:38] Speaker 1: I don't go in there. I haven't been in there for.
[0:41] Speaker 2: Also coming out swinging this week was Andrew Hastie.
[0:44] Speaker 5: Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce are lying cowards.
[0:47] Speaker 2: The Liberal MP delivering a masterclass in how to take
[0:50] Speaker 2: on one nation.
[0:51] Speaker 5: And I'll say it again, so there's no ambiguity, they
[0:54] Speaker 5: are lying cowards.
[0:59] Speaker 2: I'm Daniel James, and you're listening to 7am. Today, Press
[1:04] Speaker 2: Gallery veteran Paul Bongiorno on a fiery week in Parliament
[1:08] Speaker 2: in Who Came Off Second Best. It's Saturday, September 12th. Paul,
[1:23] Speaker 2: great to see you. Let's start with the grand tradition
[1:25] Speaker 2: of pork barreling, which we saw rear its ugly head
[1:28] Speaker 2: this week. What's the Albanese government been up to?
[1:32] Speaker 6: Well, I think you got it in one. It's been
[1:35] Speaker 6: up to pork barrelling and caught out in the act
[1:39] Speaker 6: by the Centre for Public Integrity. They had a look
[1:43] Speaker 6: at the promises that the Albanese government had made in
[1:46] Speaker 6: the election campaign, put a dollar sign to it, and
[1:49] Speaker 6: they found out, surprise, surprise, that an overwhelming majority of
[1:54] Speaker 6: the funds went to targeted Labor seats, And a smaller amount,
[1:59] Speaker 6: you know, went to non-Labour seats. Now, this is a
[2:03] Speaker 6: time dishonoured practice. Incumbent governments are in the box seat
[2:07] Speaker 6: to do it. They all have done it over the
[2:09] Speaker 6: years and they all get caught out in various ways
[2:13] Speaker 6: depending on how clumsily they do it. The problem, I think,
[2:17] Speaker 6: for Albanese is not so much that they've been caught
[2:20] Speaker 6: out pork barrelling. I mean, in one sense, that's the
[2:22] Speaker 6: way our system works. You try to win an election
[2:26] Speaker 6: by promising voters, if you vote for me, you'll get
[2:30] Speaker 6: something in return, something for the electorate. This isn't considered
[2:33] Speaker 6: in itself to be corrupt. After all, politicians are supposed
[2:38] Speaker 6: to represent the interests of their electorate.
[2:40] Speaker 2: And the Prime Minister was personally implicated thanks to a
[2:43] Speaker 2: $ 6 million grant to his local golf club, where it
[2:45] Speaker 2: turns out he's an honorary member, a membership he hadn't declared.
[2:49] Speaker 2: How has the Prime Minister responded to this revelation?
[2:53] Speaker 6: Well, I have to say, Daniel, he's responded poorly.
[2:58] Speaker 1: I make no apologies for my electorate, being serviced by
[3:03] Speaker 1: me as a good local member. These three grants are
[3:07] Speaker 1: all appropriate. Apparently about 15.
[3:09] Speaker 6: Basically, he stubbornly refused that he'd done anything that he
[3:14] Speaker 6: had to be accountable for. And initially, he actually attacked
[3:19] Speaker 6: the ABC for reporting what the Centre for Public Integrity
[3:25] Speaker 6: had found.
[3:26] Speaker 1: Yeah, and what it's for, what it's for, because the
[3:29] Speaker 1: ABC were told information they chose not to publish appropriately,
[3:34] Speaker 1: what it's for... is for at the moment, because it's
[3:37] Speaker 1: on a flood area by the Cooks River, when it
[3:40] Speaker 1: rains and there's flooding, raw sewage.
[3:44] Speaker 6: Whereas the simple explanation was that he had forgotten, basically,
[3:50] Speaker 6: that he was a member, a social member. It was
[3:53] Speaker 6: conferred on him 14 years ago. He doesn't have a card.
[3:57] Speaker 6: He doesn't play golf. And, well, frankly, he forgot about it. Now,
[4:02] Speaker 6: why he didn't say that from the word go, I
[4:04] Speaker 6: don't know. But that's the way he defended it. Can
[4:08] Speaker 6: I ask you what's happening?
[4:09] Speaker 1: And the ABCs should do better.
[4:11] Speaker 6: Thank you for that feedback, Prime Minister. We appreciate all the...
[4:14] Speaker 6: Albanese also, by Thursday, got his act together in the parliament,
[4:18] Speaker 6: and he was able to point out that Labor's pork-barrelly program,
[4:22] Speaker 6: it was an invitation program. If you want money, we're
[4:25] Speaker 6: inviting you to put your hand up. Well, $ 560 million,
[4:27] Speaker 6: a lot of money, half a billion dollars. Well, he
[4:31] Speaker 6: pointed out that the Parliamentary Budget Office found that the
[4:34] Speaker 6: Liberals in the last election campaign made $ 1. 5 billion worth
[4:39] Speaker 6: of promises to electorates all around the country. And what
[4:43] Speaker 6: we're seeing here is a mirror image from Labor's opponents.
[4:48] Speaker 2: As you intimated, Paul, it's kind of like become the norm.
[4:52] Speaker 2: So is pork barreling likely to become a bigger issue
[4:55] Speaker 2: for Albanese? Because, you know, we have seen people like
[4:58] Speaker 2: Bridget McKenzie lose her job over sports shorts after all.
[5:01] Speaker 2: What do we expect to happen here? Is it something
[5:03] Speaker 2: that'll fade from the public's memory, like the golf club
[5:07] Speaker 2: faded from elbows?
[5:08] Speaker 6: Well, it could well, except there's no doubt. And the longer,
[5:11] Speaker 6: of course, you're in office, the longer you're prime minister,
[5:14] Speaker 6: you'd lose skin. And if nothing else, this would already
[5:19] Speaker 6: confirm for people who have their doubts about Albanese or
[5:22] Speaker 6: don't like him very much, another reason not to or
[5:25] Speaker 6: another reason to doubt him. I think that this episode
[5:28] Speaker 6: will wash over for a couple of reasons. One is
[5:31] Speaker 6: that Albanese himself didn't run the overall fund. He wasn't
[5:36] Speaker 6: the one doing the allocations. And all Labor members were
[5:40] Speaker 6: invited to participate. And this $ 6 million, he made a
[5:45] Speaker 6: big deal out of where the money also went to.
[5:47] Speaker 6: It went to women's refuge in the electorate. So I
[5:51] Speaker 6: think from that point of view, people will move on.
[5:54] Speaker 6: And I suppose it's a another reason why politics and
[5:59] Speaker 6: issues of integrity and accountability are plaguing particularly the major
[6:03] Speaker 6: parties at this time.
[6:05] Speaker 2: Paul, it's been a big week in politics. The government
[6:06] Speaker 2: also announced new laws to let us switch off our
[6:09] Speaker 2: social media algorithms this week. It's a pretty popular idea,
[6:13] Speaker 2: but not with the opposition who say there's a political
[6:15] Speaker 2: element to this policy. Is there?
[6:18] Speaker 6: Well, look, I think there is a political element to
[6:21] Speaker 6: this policy, but it's a stretch to say it's an
[6:24] Speaker 6: all-out attack on free speech. And why would the coalition
[6:28] Speaker 6: reject the government's proposals to address harm on social media,
[6:34] Speaker 6: particularly for those under 16, throw the whole lot out
[6:38] Speaker 6: in the name of protecting free speech? After all, this
[6:41] Speaker 6: came in the same week that the opposition was proposing
[6:44] Speaker 6: to make burning the Australian flag a criminal offence, so
[6:48] Speaker 6: their free speech argument doesn't run every which way. But
[6:53] Speaker 6: the sinister reason for this, I believe, and there's been
[6:56] Speaker 6: some research on this, that the unregulated feed that people
[7:02] Speaker 6: access with its built-in algorithms actually favours the non-progressive side
[7:08] Speaker 6: of politics. The scientific journal Nature cites some research done
[7:13] Speaker 6: in the United States and in Australia, particularly with the
[7:17] Speaker 6: platform Twitter or X, that showed that material that favours
[7:22] Speaker 6: the right side of politics is pushed forward on the algorithms.
[7:27] Speaker 6: And if you're giving people the chance to opt out,
[7:29] Speaker 6: you're then denying the conservative side of politics a terrific
[7:34] Speaker 6: advantage that these platforms give. And Jacinta Nampajimpa Price, the
[7:39] Speaker 6: Liberal Senator, she actually nailed it by saying the only
[7:42] Speaker 6: reason why the government's doing this is because it perceives
[7:45] Speaker 6: that the algorithms don't favour it.
[7:48] Speaker 7: We are living in a digital renaissance that Labor is
[7:52] Speaker 7: about to switch off because the algorithms don't work for them.
[7:55] Speaker 7: It's a free market of ideas and the best ideas win,
[8:01] Speaker 7: not Labor's.
[8:03] Speaker 6: Well, in that she's right, but it's not the only
[8:06] Speaker 6: reason or even the main reason why the government is
[8:08] Speaker 6: doing it.
[8:12] Speaker 2: Still to come, Andrew Hastie versus Pauline Hanson. Paul, we've
[8:28] Speaker 2: been speaking about social media. Andrew Hastie came out swinging
[8:31] Speaker 2: this week over a One Nation-sponsored cartoon which accused him
[8:35] Speaker 2: of being a traitor, presumably over his testimony against Ben
[8:38] Speaker 2: Robert Smith, which Hanson has attacked him for before over
[8:42] Speaker 2: and over again. Talk us through Hastie and Hanson's response.
[8:46] Speaker 6: Yeah, this is an extraordinary episode. And why Pauline Hanson,
[8:51] Speaker 6: via a cartoon that the party sponsors called Please Explain,
[8:56] Speaker 6: would eight times call Hastie a traitor, someone who's betrayed
[9:02] Speaker 6: their country. Why are they calling you a traitor?
[9:05] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[9:05] Speaker 7: All I did was testify against Ben Robert Smith and.
[9:08] Speaker 4: Support your evil hate speech legislation after promising not to.
[9:11] Speaker 6: Yeah, right.
[9:11] Speaker 2: That is pretty traitorous, actually.
[9:13] Speaker 6: When Hastie called this out, Hanson, and indeed in the
[9:18] Speaker 6: first instance, her star recruit, Barnaby Joyce, they denied that
[9:22] Speaker 6: they'd called him a traitor.
[9:24] Speaker 3: I actually gobsmacked over all this because I think, what
[9:26] Speaker 3: the hell is he talking about, calling him a traitor?
[9:29] Speaker 3: Then I realised he's talking about a cartoon, a satirical cartoon.
[9:34] Speaker 3: And if you look at it, he says, traitor to
[9:37] Speaker 3: his country. I've never said that.
[9:40] Speaker 6: And Hastie said that they're cowards and they're liars and
[9:44] Speaker 6: they're hiding behind the cartoon that they sponsored.
[9:48] Speaker 5: And so I'm calling on Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce
[9:51] Speaker 5: to own this cartoon. And if they own it, step
[9:54] Speaker 5: out into the house or outside the house, I don't
[9:56] Speaker 5: really care, use parliamentary privilege or don't, and explain why.
[10:00] Speaker 5: I and other veterans, and indeed serving members of the
[10:02] Speaker 5: ADF who think war crimes are wrong, are traitors to
[10:05] Speaker 5: their country.
[10:06] Speaker 6: Barnaby Joyce, by the end of the week, had apologised.
[10:09] Speaker 6: He said he was unaware of the cartoon.
[10:11] Speaker 1: Mr Hacey feels great umbrage about it, and for that,
[10:14] Speaker 1: I apologise. It's nothing to do with me, but I apologise,
[10:17] Speaker 1: and obviously I don't believe Mr Hayes, he's a traitor.
[10:22] Speaker 6: Of course, that's an absurdity.
[10:23] Speaker 4: He's not.
[10:24] Speaker 6: It's widely perceived in the Parliament that Joyce himself isn't
[10:29] Speaker 6: too happy with One Nation's championing of Ben Robert Smith
[10:33] Speaker 6: at this time, whereas Hanson is completely unapologetic.
[10:37] Speaker 2: I'm trying to ask you a simple question.
[10:39] Speaker 3: I'm not calling him a traitor to his country, which
[10:42] Speaker 3: he made that statement, that I never said that, and
[10:48] Speaker 3: I have not said that. It is a satirical cartoon,
[10:52] Speaker 3: for Christ's sake.
[10:53] Speaker 2: Well, it's a cartoon, but it's also one of the
[10:56] Speaker 2: key prongs of our social media presence. And it's proven
[10:59] Speaker 2: to be very, very effective because it's very, very popular.
[11:02] Speaker 2: So it's not just a cartoon, is it?
[11:03] Speaker 6: No, it's not just a cartoon. It's a very effective
[11:07] Speaker 6: means of One Nation getting its message out and appealing
[11:12] Speaker 6: to disgruntled voters. But it's got to also be remembered
[11:16] Speaker 6: that One Nation went into bat against the ABC for
[11:19] Speaker 6: a satirical episode on the ABC in regard to Gina Reinhart. And,
[11:27] Speaker 6: of course, Hastie pointed this out. He said they're even
[11:30] Speaker 6: hypocrites when it comes to hiding behind the defence of
[11:33] Speaker 6: satire in this regard.
[11:35] Speaker 2: And fellow veteran Jackie Lambie got involved too, didn't she, Paul?
[11:39] Speaker 2: What did she have to say?
[11:40] Speaker 6: If you want to know what Jackie Lambie said, she
[11:43] Speaker 6: said it very succinctly. It'd be best to hear from her.
[11:45] Speaker 6: I told you I warned.
[11:47] Speaker 4: You years ago to leave my bloody veterans alone. Well,
[11:50] Speaker 4: now you've got Lambie and I'm fuming. Absolutely fuming. That
[11:56] Speaker 4: woman is disgusting. She's just disgusting. She has never achieved
[12:02] Speaker 4: one bloody thing up here. Let's see your list, Pauline.
[12:06] Speaker 4: What have you actually done up here that you've actually
[12:08] Speaker 4: got through Parliament and been able to achieve anything with?
[12:12] Speaker 4: All she does, she's a 10-second grab of rubbish.
[12:15] Speaker 6: Lambie was 10 years in the Army and she agreed
[12:19] Speaker 6: with Hastie that the attack on Hastie as a veteran
[12:22] Speaker 6: for being a traitor was an attack on all veterans,
[12:26] Speaker 6: particularly those who had actively served.
[12:29] Speaker 2: Hastie's approach is very different to the rest of the
[12:31] Speaker 2: Liberal Party. Angus Taylor has been relatively measured about Hanson
[12:36] Speaker 2: and One Nation. We saw the WA opposition leader Basil
[12:39] Speaker 2: Zemplis treated them as an ally, ostensibly before One Nation's
[12:43] Speaker 2: recent by-election win. What do you make of Hastie's strategy?
[12:47] Speaker 6: Well, I think Hastie's strategy should be a template for
[12:50] Speaker 6: the Liberals, you know, going forward, without a doubt. Now,
[12:54] Speaker 6: the fact of the matter too is that One Nation
[12:57] Speaker 6: is really out to eat the Liberals' lunch. We actually
[13:01] Speaker 6: saw it in the Western Australian by-election. It was One
[13:05] Speaker 6: Nation who won the seat, not the Liberals. You would
[13:08] Speaker 6: have thought that in a by-election with incumbent government's Under
[13:13] Speaker 6: the hammer, the alternative government, the Liberals, would have done better.
[13:17] Speaker 6: And this is where Hastie, of course, was furious with
[13:20] Speaker 6: his state division in WA for literally running dead in
[13:25] Speaker 6: that by-election. And it's interesting that the Liberal Party room
[13:30] Speaker 6: on Thursday had a special meeting to discuss legislation. They
[13:34] Speaker 6: gave Hastie a standing ovation. Angus Taylor, as you say,
[13:38] Speaker 6: he's a bit careful about how he goes, but when
[13:41] Speaker 6: it was put to him directly on Thursday at a
[13:43] Speaker 6: news conference, does he stand by the counter-attack of Hastie
[13:49] Speaker 6: and the way in which it was framed? And he said, yes.
[13:53] Speaker 2: Well, Paul, it'll be interesting to see if the Liberal
[13:55] Speaker 2: Party decide to adopt the hasty approach to One Nation
[13:59] Speaker 2: after his seeming success in fighting Hanson this week. But
[14:02] Speaker 2: either way, thank you for your time.
[14:04] Speaker 6: Thank you, Daniel.
[14:05] Speaker 2: Here we are. 7am is a daily show from Solstice Media.
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[14:52] Speaker 2: Have yourself a great weekend.

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