Car parks were all about marginal seats, not ‘here’s where congestion is greatest’
By
Kishor Napier-Raman
Tuesday July 20, 2021
Alan Tudge (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
It started with a list of the top 20 marginal seats, cooked up in former infrastructure minister Alan Tudge’s office. It ended with the Coalition funnelling millions meant to fund commuter car parks towards projects in Coalition-held electorates or target seats in the run-up to the 2019 election.
At a spillover estimates hearing of the Senate’s Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee yesterday morning, officials from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) revealed the startling lack of transparency and effective administration, as well as bad design that plagued the $660 million commuter car park fund, and its parent program the $4 billion Urban Congestion Fund (UCF).
Executive director of the ANAO Brian Boyd speaking this morning (Image: Lukas Coch/AAP)
It started with a list of the top 20 marginal seats, cooked up in former infrastructure minister Alan Tudge s office. It ended with the Coalition funnelling millions meant to fund commuter car parks towards projects in Coalition-held electorates or target seats in the run-up to the 2019 election.
At a spillover estimates hearing of the Senate s Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee this morning, officials from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) revealed the startling lack of transparency and effective administration, as well as bad design that plagued the $660 million commuter car park fund, and its parent program the $4 billion Urban Congestion Fund (UCF).