Moira Deeming MLC, leader of Family First Victoria, says if re-elected she will introduce legislation in 2027 to reverse Labor’s secret $6 million write-off of the Victorian Pride Centre loan and to ban this kind of shell-game funding in future.
The Australian revealed the Government quietly forgave the debt. It was never announced and only confirmed after the paper asked questions. The Equality Minister visited the Centre this week, just four weeks before the election.
“What a disgrace,” Mrs Deeming said.
“No organisation should get a secret $6 million bailout from taxpayers. This government is playing shell games with our money, handing out cash as ‘loans’ with fine print that lets the debt be quietly wiped later. This isn’t the only case. It’s a pattern. It’s fraud by another name. No private lender would get away with it.
“I will call in the loan, not forgive it. And I’ll stop them doing it again. That money should go to nurses, ambos and firefighters, not a rooftop pavilion.”
The Centre was already handed more than $30 million in public money to build and open: a $15 million grant, another $10 million grant, and free land valued by the Centre at about $13 million. This month the Government announced yet more support, including funding to finish the rooftop pavilion.
“The $10 million TCV facility was never a real loan,” Mrs Deeming said. “Their own accounts show interest of just 1.7 per cent in 2021 and 2.3 per cent in 2022, with no principal repaid. Then the Government forgave most of it. That’s a gift dressed up as a loan.”
She also pointed to the Centre’s 2023 refusal of a booking from the Lesbian Action Group for an International Lesbian Day event limited to actual lesbians.
“The CEO told them it was ‘inconsistent with the Pride Centre’s purpose.’ They claim to champion lesbians then slam the door in their faces. On that basis alone they don’t deserve a single dollar of taxpayer funding.”
“Mums and dads in the west just want basic services. They can’t understand how there’s $6 million to quietly write off while Footscray Hospital has empty wards and Melton Hospital still isn’t built. The priorities are all wrong.”
She called on the Government to immediately release the loan agreement and the advice behind the write-off.
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