The New South Wales (NSW) government has referred a damning report on its own handling of Black Summer bushfire recovery grants to the state’s corruption watchdog, after threats of a referral from the opposition.
A report by the NSW auditor-general revealed former deputy premier John Barilaro’s office intervened in the program and inexplicably created a $1 million (US$692,000) minimum for fast-tracked bushfire recovery projects.
That threshold cut all applications from Labor electorates from the $100 million (US$69.2 million) first round, including the badly-affected Blue Mountains and Tenterfield regions.
The audit, tabled in NSW parliament on Thursday, showed 21 fast-tracked projects worth more than $95 million (US$65.8 million) were in coalition seats and one worth $12.5 million (US$8.6 million) was in an independent electorate….