Rorts Watch

A rort is all about manipulating the system to gain a wrongful advantage.

As a verb, rort means to swindle or dupe. Part of Aussie slang since at least the 1910s, rort is a backformation from rorter. It is now commonly used in reference to election rigging, embezzlement, and other dodgy practices indulged in by the nation’s movers and shakers. In this sense, the word is hardly slang any more but carries serious implications for anyone who finds their face plastered on the front page of a newspaper with rort written above their heads.
Macquarie Dictionary

This list is by no means comprehensive, but it's our attempt to keep track of rorts undertaken by our political leaders across all jurisdictions in Australia.

Know about a rort that's not on this list? Let us know!

Jurisdiction	Rort	Detail	Action
Federal	Major parties reward themselves with election financing	Finance reform bill passes with no scrutiny, expenditure capped at $90m
Federal and state	Rich sports handouts	Brisbane Broncos get $5m for training centre, West Coast Eagles $10m, Collingwood AFL $15m, Sydney Swans $15m, Clay Target Assn $5.5M for convention centre – all clubs making healthy profits.	Unlikely
Federal and state	‘Cabinet’ a nonsense	Justice White rules FOI does not apply because National Cabinet is not a real cabinet, opens way for discovering what’s behind ‘gas-led recovery’ spend.	None yet
Federal	Car Parks	$660.4 million spent on commuter car parks with 77% in LNP or would-be LNP seats, picked by LNP senators and candidates. No policy objectives or assessment on merit.	ANAO report is highly critical of spend, Government denies wrong-doing.
Federal	Water rights	Update 19/3 Auditor-General asking why the $13m overspend on water. $80m to buy non-existent water rights from previously Angus Taylor-controlled offshore entity, approved by Barnaby Joyce	Auditor General reviewing
Federal	Sports rorts	Update 19/3 Senate Select Committee inquiry reports on political lines, unlikely to deliver reform. $102.5 million handed out grants with no legal authority, by-passing proper process to largely benefit marginal electorates and well-heeled clubs	Senate inquiry reports. In-house investigation kept secret, ANAO finds bias, Minister MacKenzie stood down, no commitment to act.
Federal	Lib pollster paid for secret research	Jim Reed, Liberal Party polster with Crosby Textor paid $500k for NCCC market research that can’t be made public. No tender.	No action
Federal	Assistant Treasurer overclaims	Stuart Robert claimed $2k/month for internet expenses.	Forced to repay $38k. No other action.
Federal	Sharma insider trades	Liberal MP Dave Sharma bought shares in Qantas just as the announcement was made to provide a relief package of $715m to the airlines. Months later, just before Morrison agreed with CSL to make millions of doses of a Covid vaccine, Sharma bought CSL shares.	No action
Federal	Staffer made ACCC commissioner	11/12 Peter Crone, former adviser to PM Howard, gave economic advice costing $136k and in Dec. appointed to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission	No action
Federal	Marketing deal for insider	Richard Forbes, former media adviser to the Nationals, wins $189 bid for spin on how well the bushfire recovery is going. No tender.	No action
Federal	$10m for Visy stacker	Visy donated $3m, about 1/2 each to the Libs and Labor before the 2019 election. The $10m for the stacker was paid out of the bushfire recovery fund.	ANAO doing an audit of Bushfire Recovery Agency.
Federal	Off to the races on public purse	9/12 57 MPs travelled to, in, or from Melbourne around the time of the 2019 Melbourne Cup. Deputy PM, Michael McCormack, and wife used government jet into Tabcorp’s Melbourne Cup party justifying the trip by re-announcing a 3-year-old grant for a sports hall.	Independent Parlt. Expenses Authority investigating expenses claimed by 13 MPs
Federal	PM, Treasurer party trip	4/11 Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg took a taxpayer-funded flight in a private jet to Lachlan Murdoch’s Christmas party costing $5k. Parliamentary business? Unlikely. Vested interest, probably.	No action
WA	Lap dancers, wine, non-existent staff	27/11 WA Corruption and Crime Commission reports former MP Phil Edman impeded investigation and used taxpayer funds for strip club, wine tours, employee who didn’t turn up to work for 7 years.	Likely to lead to criminal charges
Federal / NSW	Berejiklian says rorts OK	27/11Berejiklian actually says all governments and all oppositions make commitments to the community in order to curry favour. That’s part of the political process whether we like it or not. Documents approving Stronger Communities Grants to local councils worth $250m shredded by NSW Premier’s office	NSW Parliamentary committee investigating
Federal	NCCC conflict of interests secret	The COVID-19 Coordination Commissioners have made declarations of conflicts of interest but these will not be made public. Chair, Nev Power and Deputy, Andrew Liveris, pushing gas interests.
Federal	NSW Airport rort	Update 19/11 Morrison government refuses to comply with Senate order to produce 10 briefs on the controversial purchase. Land at Badgery Creek worth $3m purchased for $30m. Owners of the land donated $176,600 to the Liberal Party	ANAO found the sale fell short of ethical standards, under investigation
Vic	Bribes paid to councillors for rezoning	Lobbyists linked to ALP and Libs were paid $500k each and Casey councillors bribed by a property developer to get chicken farm zoned for housing in Cranbourne South. Property developer donated to the ALP before the last election. Land value increased from $73k to $550m.	IBAC investigating, Casey council sacked
Federal	Jobs for the boys at AAT	Attorneys General Porter and Brandis appointed 70 former MPs and staffers to the AAT. Appointee and former staffer, Tony Barry, admits to having been kicked out of law school.	Review of AAT recommends merit-based process. Albanese govt dissolves AAT.
Federal	International job for Treasurer	Mathias Cormann resigned from Parliament to bid for OECD chief but taxpayers paid for his 21,000km in private jet flights around Europe @$4,300/hour for him and 8 government staff. As at 7 Feb he was in the shortlist of 5 for the $300k/year tax free salary.	Govt agreed
Federal	Chris Pyne gets lucrative defence consultancies	Former Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne waited the requisite 18 months exclusion period but now lobbies on behalf of big defence contractors Elbit Systems, Saber Astronautics, Droneshield, and Ethan Group -mmajor suppliers to the ADF and. while still in Cabinet. negotiated work with EY consultants.	In line with Ministerial standards but demonstrates the exclusion period should be at least 3 years.
Federal / Qld	Palmer again	Clive Palmer lies about ‘Labor’s death tax’ in the Queensland State Election. Will likely spend the max allowed under new Qld caps on donations and election spending, hoping his business interests will benefit from an LNP Government.	Misleading and deceptive conduct prohibited by law for corporations and commerce but not for politics
Vic	Vic rail execs on the take	Fleet Manager of Metro Trains and V/Line CEO pocket ~$150k each from cleaning company to cover up poor performance.	Vic IBAC is investigating
Federal	Top 40 tax dodgers	Michael West lists the latest companies that make huge profits and pay little or nothing in tax and the fossil fuel sector is well-represented! ExxonMobil made over $42b over 5 years and paid zero tax.	Exxon spent $10m fighting the ATO, uses tax havens
NSW	Daryl Maguire	Dodgy property and immigration deals, peddling access to Premier	NSW ICAC investigating. Ministers and Parliamentary Secs now banned from property deal commissions
Federal	ASIC Chair rorting	ASIC Chair, James Shipton and his deputy paid $180,000 to relocate and manage personal tax affairs and this is the regulator!	Discovered by ANAO, investigation underway by consultant, Vivienne Thom
Federal	Aust Post watches	Update: Govt settles unfair dismissal. $12k spent on four Cartier watches for execs – the latest in a long list of executive gifts. Post claims it is a commercial entity even though wholly owned by the Commonwealth. Board is stacked with Liberal party leaders and former MPs.	Coms Minister orders an investigation. PM overreacts, stands down CEO. Taxpayers fund $1.1m settlement
Federal	Water rights	Update 19/3 Auditor-General asking why the $13m overspend on water. $80m to buy non-existent water rights from previously Angus Taylor-controlled offshore entity, approved by Barnaby Joyce	Auditor General reviewing
Federal	Jobkeeper rorts	JobKeeper payments used to pay dividends to shareholders and executive bonuses	No action
Federal	Foxtel bailout	Foxtel received $40m overall for its flagging subscription TV service, supposedly to broadcast women’s sport. Foxtel is Murdoch-owned which relentlessly promotes the Coalition. Arguably the Coalition’s NBN rollout to the node made it slower and less of a threat to subscription TV. ABC must pay for licensing fee to rebroadcast.	No explanation as to why necessary. FOIs answered but hugely redacted.
Federal	General Covid prok-barrelling	Billions spent on projects – regional swimming pools, Regional Growth Fund, Building Better Regions Fund, Urban Congestion Fund, Regional Jobs and Investment Package – which were overwhelmingly in Liberal seats and/or had dodgy approvals process.	No action
Federal	Drought Communities Program	Of the 14 councils awarded funds under this program, 6 did not meet the agricultural employment threshold, 7 did not meet the rainfall deficiency threshold but were awarded the $1m each anyway, 13 councils were in coalition seats	No action
Federal	Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream	No guidelines, no tender process, no application form. Some recipients first heard about it in the local paper.	No action
Federal	Sports rorts	Update 19/3 Senate Select Committee inquiry reports on political lines $102.5 million handed out grants with no legal authority, by-passing proper process to largely benefit marginal electorates and well-heeled clubs	In-house investigation kept secret, ANAO finds bias, Minister MacKenzie stood down, no commitment to act differently.
Federal	Lies about flights	Angus Taylor falsely claimed the City of Sydney spent $15m on air travel when it was only $6k but the document relied upon cannot be found	No one found responsible
Federal	Aust Border Force	$39m ‘fee’ handed out to boat builder Austal to prop up failing business. Austral donated $20k to the Liberal party.	Uncovered by Auditor General in 2018, now being investigated by ACLEI
Federal	$1.3b arms deal	Government goes to extraordinary lengths to suppress Auditor General’s report showing cheaper options	Senator Rex Patrick pursuing
Federal	Robodebt	Centrelink raises ~$2billion in unlawful debts using income averaging. Brought in debt collectors causing great anxiety. Delays in payments. No apology, no acknowledgement of the damage to victims.	Government settles out of court 17/11 pays out $1.2b. Court action by Vic Legal Aid successful. No one sacked. NACC re-opens investigation into Royal Commission referrals.
Federal	Great Barrier Reef fund	Coalition awarded $430m contract to small, Liberal Party-connected organisation despite an existing, established and well-credentialed group applying for funds. (Real problem for reef is global warming.)	ANAO investigates, warns serious shortcomings in assessment criteria.
Federal	Helloworld holiday	Helloworld travel agency paid for Finance Minister Mathias Cormann’s family holiday to Singapore within two weeks of the Coalition awarding Helloworld a Government contract worth over $1billion. Andrew Burnes, Liberal Party treasurer is major shareholder of Helloworld.	Cormann paid the money back when he realised the SMH knew.