An audit has found a $184 million program funnelled money into marginal and Coalition-held seats at the last two elections. 

The auditor-general’s review of the Safer Communities Fund, now overseen by the Department of Home Affairs, has found all but one of the projects approved for Labor at the 2016 election went to marginal electorates. 

Almost half of the money that went to Coalition-held seats went to safe electorates.

Three years later, ahead of the 2019 election, money went to Coalition seats at a rate that “represented a higher proportion of approved applications (in both numerical and dollar terms) than they represented as a proportion of the application population”, according to the report.

Over a three-year period, it has now been revealed that Coalition-held seats received $1.9 billion in grants compared to $530 million given to Labor electorates. 

The audit found that the first Safer Communities Fund round of projects was used to “fund identified election commitment” projects in the 2016 election, with projects located solely in Coalition-held seats accounting for 59 per cent of all projects. 

Labor-held seats accounted for 27 per cent of funded projects.

“In all but one instance, the location was in a marginal electorate, involving 99 per cent of the funding awarded to projects located in an ALP held electorate,” the auditor-general found.

“The funding awarded to projects located in safe electorates and fairly safe electorates held by the ALP was lower in comparison to the proportion of the application population they represented.”

The audit report also shows that decisions on awarding grants were not appropriately informed by departmental briefings. In the majority of cases, there was no clear record for the basis of ministerial briefings.

“It was not recorded how decisions were taken about which applications would receive partial rather than full funding, and how the amount of partial funding was derived,” the audit report said.

The Auditor-General recommended Home Affairs ensure everyone in the target audience for grant opportunities are made aware that funding is available in order to reduce actual or perceived barriers to entry.

It also called on Home Affairs to give better briefings to ministers and include more information about the merits of each application.

The department has agreed to all the recommendations.