Pork Barrelling Inquiry to probe bushfire funds routed to Coalition, a billionaire and the extraordinary Wagga Wagga windfall

The misuse of public money has reached such blatant proportions that even grants for bushfire relief and recovery for local communities are now being deployed for political purposes, to buy votes.

Following an investigation by Michael West Media into the secretive allocations of bushfire money to companies associated with prolific Coalition donor Anthony Pratt ($1.5m last year) – and to Coalition seats – a NSW Upper House inquiry into grants rorting has been extended.

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the revelations however was that almost a quarter of the funds went the way of Wagga Wagga, whose state seat lies in the middle of Nationals MP and Deputy PM Michael McCormack’s seat. This, despite the fact that Wagga Wagga…