Bureaucrats sitting in Canberra offices know "three-fifths of bugger all", the leader of the Nationals Party has said, adding he lacked confidence in how they spent money.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
David Littleproud said the comments in response to claims his party colleagues favoured granting government funds to Coalition-held electorates as revealed in an audit report released in July.
It comes as a key billion-dollar Coalition grants program for the regions was scrapped by the Labor government on Monday following a series of "pork-barrelling" controversies revealed by the federal watchdog.
Two new regional grants programs will instead be funded over the coming three years with Infrastructure Minister Catherine King promising to "restore integrity" to funding processes.
But the opposition hit back at the federal government's claims, saying it's "hardly startling" money went to National-held seats in the regions and that ministers knew better than Canberra bureaucrats.
The Australian National Audit Office's report showed almost two-thirds of grants given from the Building Better Regions Fund, a $1 billion regional infrastructure program, were against department recommendations.
Its findings revealed 65 per cent of 1293 projects awarded funding were not put forward by the Infrastructure Department as the "most meritorious".
The use of a ministerial panel, which consisted of Coalition members, was found to have increasingly relied upon "other factors" in the decision-making progress, inconsistent with departmental advice.
Mr Littleproud, who sat on two of the ministerial panels, said his colleagues knew better about what was happening on the ground in the regions than public servants in Canberra.
"Just because a bureaucrat in Canberra thought a priority in one part of the nation was more important than another - we didn't think [that] was the right way to decide how ... that money should be distributed," he said on Monday.
"I don't want a bureaucrat telling me what should happen in Thargomindah compared to what's happening in Roma.
"With all due respect, [bureaucrats are] great people but they know three-fifths of bugger all outside this place.
"I don't have a lot of confidence in them telling us how ... we should administer money."
Ms King earlier announced the sixth round of the grants program would not go ahead and instead be replaced by the Growing Regions and Precincts and Partnerships program, which focuses on delivering for regional and rural communities.
She also dismissed criticism from the National Party, which signed off on many of the funding decisions, pointing to the audit office's findings.
"Despite all the evidence, the National Party continues to defend the fund and, what is worse, tries to tell people their applications were funded under round six of the [fund]," Ms King said.
"What they are defending are decisions to preference their own electorates, to ignore anything resembling proper process and in some cases hand out funds to people who never applied and didn't know they had got the money."
The Labor frontbencher said the Community Development Grants program, which was a closed program based on a 2013 election promise, would also be cut.
Mr Littleproud added he rejected the assertion that the funding decisions were regional "rorts".
"It is incredibly hypocritical of Labor to accuse the Nationals of pork-barrelling when we already know this budget is all about helping the re-election campaign of Victorian Premier Dan Andrews," he said.
"It's hardly startling that most of the money for a regional program went to Nationals-held seats. It's a regional fund and we are the party that represents regional Australia."
READ MORE:
The Auditor-General found the overall program's awarding of grants, which was overseen by former Coalition infrastructure minister Michael McCormack, was "partly consistent" with the guidelines.
But the report also noted "an increasing disconnect" between the assessments put forward by the department and the grants issued by the minister as the program progressed through the five rounds.
The oversight office said record-keeping of those decisions had been "inadequate".
Mr McCormack responded to the audit's report, saying all grants had been awarded in line with the guidelines.
Seats held by the Nationals got $104 million more - 29 per cent - than if the merit processes had been relied upon and rural seats fared between 3 and 16 per cent worse off under the ministerial panel decisions.