The Boboli Gardens surround the Pitti Palace in Florence, built in 1458 for banker Luca Pitti. It later became the home of the ever-famous Medici family and others.
It is in these stunning gardens that one will find the Fontana Dei Mostaccini, the Fountain of the Little Snouts. It is a slender, elongated fountain that flows alongside a path and down a gentle slope. Its design is punctuated by pig-like heads, each well-snouted and spilling water into the trough to the next snout-in-waiting. It is a long line of snouts.
It is also a long way from Australia. But busy snouts can be found in this nation too.
In September, the Federal Parliament heard claims that the Prime Minister’s snout, for example, could allegedly be found around the Marrickville Golf Club where he promised about $6 million before the Minister in charge of that pot of public money had even officially opened the invitation-only pool of funds. He made no declaration of any conflicts of interest, a requirement of the ministerial code of conduct.
The need for that declaration took national media attention and continues to do so. The Prime Minister owns property nearby and is also an honorary member of the golf club.
He is now dealing with claims that he has allegedly misled the Parliament over the true use of the funds given by his government and signed off by the Minister for Infrastructure, close ally, and the Member for Ballarat, Catherine King.
However, via her own media release and Facebook, and stories in the Ballarat Courier of May 7, 2026, and Ballarat Times of May 16, 2026, it seems Minister King may have her very own snout and accompanying trough.
These publications discuss the $607,000 she gave to the Ballarat Trades Hall under the regional Precincts and Partnerships Program: money given to upgrade the union building in the centre of Ballarat, built in the 1880’s.
The now Prime Minister even gave ‘The Battle For Fairness Speech’ to the Ballarat Trades Hall Dinner in Ballarat on 26 February 2015 in which he enjoyed the contention that Ballarat was the birthplace of the ALP and the union movement.
The Trades Hall building also serves as the Labor Party headquarters for the Ballarat region.
Labor’s local election campaigns and their election night gatherings are held in that very building. They will be there again in a month’s time.
Can you imagine the outrage if a Liberal government upgraded Liberal Headquarters?
Two decades of Ballarat Courier front pages depict Ms King’s joy from inside Trades Hall on election night.
But in Ballarat, Labor’s supposed heartland, not a squeak about paying out public money to upgrade for the Labor and Union HQ.
One might think that the Labor Party and the union sector, especially in Victoria, were well enough flushed with funds to pay for their own upgrades.
Further, as per her Parliamentary Register of Interests, Minister King is a member of the Australian Services Union. Its regional headquarters are located at Ballarat Trades Hall among the 24 unions affiliated with the site via Unions Ballarat.
The new funding is part of a planned $12 million upgrade to improve disability and ‘community’ access – despite the site being surrounded by plenty of other community spaces such as the Ballarat Mechanics Institute, the Ballarat Art Gallery or even the Civic Hall all just a stone’s throw away.
This is not to say Minister King has done anything wrong. But it does highlight a flow of funds that would spark fury on the left if the Libs were to do the same.
One of the interesting changes to Australia’s political landscape in recent times is the smothering of the true Westminster system by a quasi-socialist version.
It is the ‘socialism’ used by the Eastern European bloc countries after World War Two. By ‘socialism’, they mean communism.
In Australia now, the Albanese version of the Westminster system has Westminster traditions but does not adhere to that system. Albanese would rather lie about what he is doing than admit that the Westminster system is being destroyed.
Under Westminster – responsible government – parliamentarians must answer questions honestly so that the electorate can know the truth about government plans and expenditure. This Westminster tradition is being eroded.
Once upon a time, a non-declared bottle of wine was enough to topple a Premier.
In a socialist system, public or state management is supposed to give priority to collective well-being over individual profit. This has never worked because socialist governments favour a totalitarian system to the advantage of a small number who hold power.
If there are elections in a socialist state the choice is almost always between three or four candidates from the one totalitarian political party. It means no choice at all. Just the veneer of choice.
The veneer of propriety is wearing increasingly thin in Australian politics today.
Conflicts of interests impress no one, nor the snouts in troughs.
With Albanese’s team, the Australian political Fontana Dei Mostaccini shall not run dry any time soon.
Roger Pescott, Former Minister in the Kennett Government
The post The fountain of the little snouts appeared first on The Spectator Australia.
