A NEW bike path meanders through an industrial zone on the fringe of Ulladulla, the sort of South Coast town that teeters on the brink - part arcadian coastal village, part withering regional hub.
The path ducks in behind a bus stop and ends, abruptly, on a creek bank by the Princes Highway. An unwary cyclist could easily whiz past the bold sign proclaiming ''Australian government, a nation building project economic stimulus plan'' straight into the gravel on the roadside.
The mayor, Lachlan Harris, said he was yet to learn if the council had been successful in its request for another grant to build a bridge over the little gully. The council has allocated its own funds should the request be turned down.
The path was built as part of the $750,000 slice Ulladulla and Nowra councils managed to grab from the $40 million bundle the federal government allocated for bike paths.
This bike path allocation was part of the $650 million jobs fund package that was, in turn, part of the $42 billion economic stimulus package.
As the opposition flailed away at the government over the insulation incentive portion of the stimulus scheme - eventually emerging from the fray with only part of the Environment Minister Peter Garrett's scalp - councils the nation over have been quietly, frantically spending their loot.
A Herald analysis of the spending - from spruced-up community halls and wetland boardwalks to the $36 million secured by the Gold Coast City Council towards its stadium - suggests councils in Labor electorates have fared slightly better than those held by the Coalition.
Councils in Labor seats won $306 million, compared with $211 million in Coalition seats. Another $32 million is being spent in independent seats.
Of the 137 projects approved by the Infrastructure Minister, Anthony Albanese, 84 were in seats held by Labor and 47 were Coalition. The other six were in independent seats.
The Nationals leader and opposition spokesman on local government, Warren Truss, called on the Australian National Audit Office to investigate the apparent imbalance in the allocation of federal government funds.
''A real pattern of pork-barrelling has developed under this government, and Coalition seats are getting the rough end of the pineapple,'' he said.
An earlier analysis by The Australian Financial Review found some evidence that marginal seats on both sides of the political divide appeared to be favoured, as well as recent Labor trophies. It highlighted large projects in key seats such as Wentworth and Eden-Monaro.
Mr Albanese dismisses such claims, noting that one-third of all seats could be considered marginal, and that they received just one quarter of the funding.
He says Labor holds 55 per cent of seats and took 55 per cent of the money.
Mr Truss has called for the audit office to investigate the spending. It has said it may do so.
Either way, the government has learnt that you cannot just give away $42 billion without copping some flak.
Joanna Gash, the MP for Gilmore, home of the bike path to nowhere, is furious more money has not been allocated to fixing the Princes Highway in Ulladulla, where eight young people were killed over the Christmas period.
Closer to home there have been dark mutterings after the Herald revealed that Botany Bay Council had made unplanned changes to its $2 million upgrade to the Hensley Park athletics field in Pagewood, making the facility more appropriate for football codes than track and field.
Perhaps the most controversial single allocation was the $2.68 million spent on a memorial for the Tree of Knowledge in Barcaldine, central Queensland. By tradition striking shearers met under this old gum in 1891 and formed the Labor Party. Vandals poisoned it with glyphosate in 2006.
The critics grumbled not only that federal Labor was splurging treasure on its own monument, but that Queensland Labor had already spent $2.5 million on it. They complained that the giant ribbed wooden box that was eventually built was out of character with the town.
And they protested that just as the money was allocated, two historians, Peter and Sheila Forrest, had established that the story was a myth.
Email a friend