They're oft-quoted words when something doesn't pass the pub test - "no rules were broken".
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Farrer MP Sussan Ley used words to those effect when eyebrows were raised at her buying an apartment on the Gold Coast while on official duties, something she lost her position in cabinet over.
We got a message along those lines from Wodonga Council when the Victorian Ombudsman found $18 million in extra revenue was collected from its waste management levy over a decade-long period.
And we heard it on Thursday from Wodonga-based Victorian Senator Bridget McKenzie after the Auditor-General found she awarded grants from a $100 million fund based on electorates the Coalition wanted to win, rather than solely on merit, when she was sports minister.
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The independent review of the community sports grant program slammed the government's use of the fund, finding most of the grants were awarded in seats targeted by the Coalition during last year's federal election campaign.
It came after former Indi MP Cathy McGowan complained to the Australian National Audit Office, after more than $3 million worth of federal grants were hidden from her during the election campaign, including the announcement of $205,000 to upgrade lighting at Wodonga's Martin Park.
The Auditor-General's report found nine of the 10 electorates approved to receive the most money were either marginal seats or ones being eyed by the Coalition and that nine of the 10 electorates that received the least funding were Labor seats and "safe" government seats.
As we said when the Wodonga Council waste levy scandal broke in 2018, the Ombudsman isn't some mythical creature which makes false accusations for the fun of it. The same applies for the Auditor-General.
We don't doubt that the projects which were successful, including the Martin Park upgrade, all had merit, but it seems impossible to ignore that pork-barrelling took place.
While on the topic of pork, and pigs, we'll leave you with a quote from the George Orwell novel, Animal Farm, where "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others".