Australia’s unions are running short of members, but not of money. This analysis identifies that from 2022, Labor governments at the federal and state level have awarded at least $215 million in taxpayer-funded grants to peak union councils, individual unions, union training arms and union-controlled entities.

WestInvest is a $5 billion funding program announced in September 2021 to provide ‘local infrastructure to help communities hit hard by COVID-19’ in 15 local government areas (LGAs) selected by the NSW government. The objective of this audit was to assess the integrity of the design and implementation of the program and the award of...

This article critically analyses the legal accountability mechanisms for grants funding through public finance legislation, ‘soft law’ such as grants, guidelines and ministerial standards, and the availability of legal redress. It also examines political accountability mechanisms, including the operation of parliamentary committees, the Auditor-General and the Ombudsman.

Integrity in government has been a key issue in New South Wales for decades. This paper examines a range of topical issues including the funding model for integrity agencies, the regulation of political donations and lobbying and pork barrelling.

The Bushfire Local Economic Recovery (BLER) program was created after the 2019–20 bushfires. It is co-funded by the Commonwealth and NSW governments. This audit assessed how effectively the Department of Regional NSW and Resilience NSW administered rounds one and two of the BLER program.