Sports Grants and the Political Pork Barrel: An Investigation of Political Bias in the Administration of Australian Sports Grants

The Australian federal Labor government initiated and administered over a period of four years a Community Cultural, Recreational and Sporting Facilities Program, supposedly with priority funding to disadvantaged groups. This program has recently been the subject of considerable public controversy w...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian journal of political science 1999-03, Vol.34 (1), p.63-74
Main Author: GAUNT, CLIVE
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Administration
Australia
Australian Labor Party
Bias
BIAS (METHODOLOGICAL OR INSTITUTIONAL)
Communities
Community Cultural Recreational and Sporting Facilities Program
Corruption
Cultural policy
Discrimination
Fraud
Government aid
Government grant
Grants
Kelly, Ros
Political parties
Politicians
Politics
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Pork Barrel
Preferences
Public administration
PUBLIC FINANCE
Social services
SPORT
Sports
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Australian federal Labor government initiated and administered over a period of four years a Community Cultural, Recreational and Sporting Facilities Program, supposedly with priority funding to disadvantaged groups. This program has recently been the subject of considerable public controversy with allegations of maladministration and political bias. This paper examines the program for objective evidence of political bias and finds that priority funding appears to have gone to government-held marginal electorates rather than disadvantaged groups. While first acknowledging the normal scientific caveat that absolute proof is not possible, the results here are strongly suggestive of political bias in the allocation of funds and supportive of the pork-barrelling hypothesis.
ISSN:1036-1146
1363-030X
DOI:10.1080/10361149950461