☕️ PM accused of pork barrelling

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On Thursday, the Victorian Government passed legislation decriminalising the act of begging.

Legalise Cannabis MP Rachel Payne introduced the measure, which some other Australian jurisdictions already had in place.

The practice remains a criminal offence in the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia, with the NT Government telling TDA it is “not currently considering changes” to its begging laws.

Here’s what you need to know.

Begging is the act of asking for money or material help from the public. Its status as a criminal offence differs in each jurisdiction.

Begging has never been an offence in the ACT.

NSW was the first state to decriminalise the practice in 1979. Western Australia followed suit in 2004 and Tasmania in 2024.

Police can still issue move on orders if people are obstructing pedestrians or traffic, or scaring or harassing others.

Last year, Payne introduced a private member’s bill to the Legislative Council (upper house) to decriminalise begging.

Payne was struck by the story of 27-year-old Jessica Geddes, who lived in Payne’s electorate and whose partner murdered her in 2020.

In the 18 months before her death, there were “36 public order reports... mostly in relation to her begging,” Payne said.

“The coroner’s report... indicated that if there had not been the criminalisation of begging, that the police response could have been better and... welfare-oriented,” Payne noted.

This week, Victorian Parliament was debating what Payne described as an “omnibus bill” – basically, different topics are voted on all at once.

It addressed coercive control, family violence, and good character references.

Payne introduced an amendment: a clause to remove begging or “gathering alms” as a criminal offence. Alms are donations to those in need, such as money and food.

The amendment passed both houses with the support of the Government and other crossbenchers.

Speaking to TDA, Legalise Cannabis Member for Southern Metropolitan Rachel Payne said: “ There is [an] overwhelming majority of support there to say... ‘We really need to wrap people who are our most vulnerable with support and with help, and not criminalise them’.”

In the Legislative Assembly (lower house), Coalition MPs, including Shadow Attorney-General James Newbury, opposed the bill.

Newbury accused the Government of amending laws “without any consultation,” and said the bill “remove[s] consequences for antisocial or bad behaviour”.

He also quoted Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association CEO Wes Lambert, who said the decision “will only further reduce demand and decimate our state.”

TDA reached out to the South Australian, Queensland and Northern Territory governments, where begging is still a criminal offence.

At the time of publishing, only the NT had replied.

A spokesperson said the Government is “not currently considering changes to the Territory’s laws relating to begging.”

They added “community safety and ensuring police have appropriate laws and powers available to respond to offending and antisocial behaviour in public places” remains its priority.

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing accusations of “pork barrelling” over a Government grants program.

A new investigation found a $560 million scheme overwhelmingly funnelled money to Labor-held and marginal seats ahead of the 2025 federal election, including Albanese’s own electorate.

It’s raised fresh questions about how public money gets handed out, and whether it’s being used to win votes rather than meet genuine need.

So, what’s going on?

And from which barrel is the PM getting his pork?

Before refrigeration, many households preserved salted pork in wooden barrels.

The political meaning emerged in the U.S. in the late 19th century, describing how members of Government would hand out funds to voters, i.e. giving them pork (money and/or resources) from their barrel (taxpayer funds).

The term has since spread to other English-speaking countries, including Australia.

Here’s an example: A local member wins their seat at an election by a few hundred votes.

When the next election campaign rolls around, the Opposition announces funding for a new hospital in the area, without investigating if it’s actually necessary, in order to secure votes to win back the seat.

This could be described as pork barrelling.

Current rules mean ministers can allocate funding against departmental advice, and without completing processes to determine merit.

While there are no laws specifically banning pork barrelling, the practice can be associated with ‘electoral bribery’ — where someone seeking election or re-election directly gives or receives gifts or benefits from voters.

Election bribery is illegal, but the law specifically excludes “a promise of public action” — meaning politicians who promise funding to win votes are not in breach of the law.

Pork barrelling has re-entered the national conversation this week after a think tank called The Centre for Public Integrity (CPI) published an investigation into a Government initiative called the “Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program”.

It found the program handed out more than $560 million, but it was invitation-only.

Community groups couldn’t automatically apply, they had to be invited by the Government to submit an application.

How those invitations were decided has never been fully explained.

The CPI examined the program and found seats held by Labor, or seats Labor was competing for, received an average of $60 million more than their proportional share.

Seats Labor had no chance of winning received $116 million less.

Almost a third of electorates got nothing at all.

The ABC reported that one of the grants was $6 million for the Marrickville Golf Club, in Albanese’s own electorate of Grayndler.

He’s also an honorary member of the club.

Albanese has defended the funding, telling the ABC the golf club sits on a flood-prone area near the Cooks River and needed the upgrade to stop sewage overflow during floods.

Independent MP Helen Haines described it as “pork barrelling by design”.

Haines has previously introduced bills that would force grants programs to have clear, public selection criteria and create a parliamentary watchdog to oversee them.

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

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70,000 pints of Guinness are missing — but enough about what you did over the weekend.

British police are seeking information about two trucks which drove up to a depot near Liverpool and drove away with nearly 900 Guinness barrels in trailers, equivalent to thousands of pints. The trailers later turned up empty in Lancashire.

The total value of all the stolen items is approximately £205,000 ($AU387,000).

Detective Sergeant McClatchey said: “It is famously said that ‘Guinness is good for you’, but that is only the case when it has been bought and paid for.”

Reporting by Pavitra Ravi.