Pin the tail on the Pig.

Want to play this game with me?
If you do, choose your team carefully. The small team at thevogfiles.com have been at this for over two years now and we are very match fit. We also know the rules.
They are:
 a) download the data
b) analyse it
c) if it smells of pork then pin the tail on the Pig
d) Post the analysis so that the punters can see that we were not just playing let’s throw bullshit, which has a different set of rules and morals.

If it doesn’t smell like Pork then go back to (a) download some more data and analyse it etc.

One of the tactics of the people who don’t play by the Marquis of Pork rules is to throw in the “bothism” card. This is a rare card which has yet to be seen. It comes from lazy politicians who have been caught out playing throw the bullshit (other game) rather than pin the tail on the Pig.

So who’s playing the bullshit (other game) now?

Rex Patrick that erstwhile former Senator from South Australia. The man who believed he invented FOI, the investigator of Diary entries in the vain glorious hope that he will catch someone out. He has obviously been watching too many Gotcha questions by Murdoch journos. He’s found an ally in Michael West and they broke an amazing story replete with huge pictures of flying pink pigs. (The larger the pig the larger the scandal).

The article is about Community batteries and the promises made by Labor before the 2022 election. Information they have never retracted or backed away from.
Every political party makes promises and they may or may not be costed properly. They are normally associated with what that political party consider worthwhile policy. It’s a contest of ideas. We have this idea, vote for us as opposed to we have another idea vote for us. On the fence are the spoilers like Patrick who just snipes away at everyone and doesn’t come up with any sort of real ideas which would benefit the community.

So this snipe is trying to say that Labor are pork barrelling the community battery scheme. He makes up his own version of what that really is.

You may have noticed over the last two years www.thevogfiles.com have analysed over $7.4 billion in 17 specific grant schemes 15 of them were a bias toward Coalition Electorates. But that isn’t all that is wrong with them. Most of them ignore the grants rules and guidelines and the PGPA Act 2013. I suspect some of them are illegal because the right appropriation hasn’t been made in the budget or Appropriation bills.
Patrick argues that these are an unveiling of a rort with associated colour spreadsheets.
He says: “Pork barrelling is political corruption. It involves the expenditure of public funds, typically through a grant, to build infrastructure in a way that favours the interests of a political party, rather than in the public interest.”

Is that the case? What is his evidence?

He quotes his erstwhile colleague from Mayo who wanted to apply for these Battery opportunities. Who suggested the FOI. It links to another “bombshell” story in West’s publication where Sharkie has asked a question in parliament saying Solar Rorts – Federal Labor caught in $200 million pork barrelling scheme .

So what is the reality? What was promised?
That was apparent in the voluminous FOI disclosure log. They had promised 58 sites where they would fund community batteries. However those Grant requests would have to meet the Grants rules and guidelines as well as the Guidelines for the fund where they are specifically mentioned. All 58 of them. If you don’t meet the criteria then you don’t get the money.

What transpired?

Well as is www.thevogfiles.com MO we went to the grant connect portal and downloaded all the grants for the 2022 – 2023 financial year. We then put a filter on it and isolated the grants in this scheme. There were 52 grants. 50 of them in the guidelines (Scheme1) and 2 of them in Scheme 2. So 50 of the original 58 were granted grants. The scheme started on 30th Jan 2023 and applicants had 5 weeks to apply. The guidelines for application can be found on this page.
https://business.gov.au/grants-and-programs/community-batteries-for-household-solar-stream-1
bottom of the page.
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How much were the Grants worth in total?
The total value of the 52 grants was $27,109,369 NOT $200 million as claimed in the Patrick article. 
Here is a breakdown of the grants by political party.

​As usual we have placed the spreadsheet calculator on the website for downloading.
There is one difference between what we do at www.thevogiles.com and the likes of Rex Patrick and that is we play by the rules of evidence.

We play Pin the tail on the Pig. Patrick failed miserably to Pin the tail on this Pig.

I also feel a disclosure should be made at this time.
Yes I am a Labor party member and proud of it. My health is such that I don’t any longer attend branch meetings and so these days I have very little to do with the party machinery.

I wasn’t asked to do any of this work by any Labor party executive members or by any MP’s that I know. They are welcome, as are anyone who accesses my website to use the data to verify my writings.

So if you want to have a go at me for being “rusted on” then go for it. Anyone who isn’t rusted on to Social justice “is a bum” (To quote Bob Hawke after Australia won the America’s cup and give it a twist).
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Unlike the Liberal, Centre Alliance and the Nationals, I like to play my political game of Pin the tail on the Pig with a straight bat (forgive the mixed metaphors.) I am told often that “they all do it” as yet I don’t believe you. Because you haven’t provided the necessary evidence to prove that Labor are corrupt only a poor attempt at a smear counting on no one doing the grunt work. End.

Community Batteries VOG EXCEL