And they said Gough was bad with money...

[topsywaldron]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 04,00.html

"New government figures reveal John Howard and his ministers doled out $9.1 billion in grants at their personal discretion between 2002 and last year in what Labor sources described last night as stunning evidence of loose financial management.
The Department of Finance figures, to be publicly released today, show a massive trend under the Howard government to create grant programs over which ministers had the right to use their discretion to determine which projects received funds.
Between 2002 and last year, grants allocated at ministerial discretion grew tenfold from $451million to $4.5billion, with almost $7.5billion spent in the Howard government's final term.
The individual number of grants blew out from 12,006 in 2004 to 49,060 last year.
Discretionary grants are available in a range of government sectors and do not include entitlement-based payments or rebates such as drought assistance, family tax benefits and baby bonuses.
The Labor Party has long accused the Coalition of using the grant programs to curry favour, particularly in rural and regional electorates."

Bye bye John. Maybe now we have someone in Government we can trust to do the right thing with our money.

[smac]

First Government ever to pork-barrel?

It's ok mate, he's gone now... You can relax.

[Psyber]

... Maybe now we have someone in Government we can trust to do the right thing with our money.

Agreed with you completely up to here, it should not happen, but that last statement's really naive!
Never use the words politician or government and "trust" in the same sentence....

[therisingblues]

... Maybe now we have someone in Government we can trust to do the right thing with our money.

Agreed with you completely up to here, it should not happen, but that last statement's really naive!
Never use the words politician or government and "trust" in the same sentence....

"You can't trust the government." How's that one Psyber?

[Psyber]

... Maybe now we have someone in Government we can trust to do the right thing with our money.

Agreed with you completely up to here, it should not happen, but that last statement's really naive!
Never use the words politician or government and "trust" in the same sentence....

"You can't trust the government." How's that one Psyber?

It works with the appropriate negative I concede, but that is using the equivalent of "not trust" rather than "trust" in sense!

[therisingblues]

How about: "You must be a fool to trust the government."?

[Psyber]

How about: "You must be a fool to trust the government."?

Again the indirect negation solves the problem.
Perhaps if I amend my original comment to, "Never use the words politician or government and "trust" in the same sentence.... without a suitable negation."