Sydney Council Ordered to Return $36 Million for ‘Blatant Pork-Barrelling’
The funding for the park project in Hornsby Shire Council, located in Sydney’s north, came from the Stronger Communities fund of the Coalition government. However, a 2021 inquiry revealed that the fund was distributed in a politically biased manner.
The council is now required to repay a majority of the $40 million grant it received because the park was never built. The Stronger Communities fund was initially created in 2017 to assist councils that were being merged, but Hornsby Shire Council never went through a merger process.
Following limited progress and significant delays in the project, the NSW Labor government has instructed the council to return $36 million of the unspent funds. This decision was made due to the misuse of public money and the lack of progress in completing the project.
A parliamentary inquiry in 2021 uncovered that the grants from the Fund were distributed based on political favoritism, primarily benefiting Coalition or marginal electorates just before the 2019 NSW election. The scheme was also designed to penalize councils that opposed forced amalgamations.
Despite the council’s request for an extension to utilize the remaining funds being denied, they will be allowed to keep a separate $50 million grant for transforming a quarry into parkland, as progress has been made on that project.
