Debra O'Brien has criticised New England MP Barnaby Joyce for saying there could be an innocent explanation to the slashing of funding for an Armidale project.
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Federal government funding for security cameras and other safety measures along a cycle way was cut from the recomended amount by more than half by federal Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton.
Mr Dutton ignored the advice of public servants that he fund Armidale Regional Council's entire $945,687 project through the Safer Communities program. He instead funded just $450,000 in 2019.
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An ABC investigation last week revealed he intervened to spend much of the savings on projects considered "less merited" in marginal electorates.
"(It's) all well and good for Barnaby Joyce to defend his mate but what about defending the community he is supposed to represent," Ms O'Brien told the Express.
"It's hard to believe the slashing of our Safer Communities' grant was an innocent mistake when rort after rort is impacting on regions all over Australia."
The reduced amount was announced in March 2019 and used to install additional solar lighting on the Armidale cycleway, to improve community safety along the route and in the city's central business district, It was finally installed in December 2020.
In repsone to the report, Mr Joyce had said there may be an innocent explanation for the short-changing, saying that budget cuts across the board could have been responsible for the reduction.
He said he was confident the minister, a former Queensland police detective, had not broken any laws, or the ministerial code of conduct.
Mr Joyce said what some call pork-barreling was just ordinary politics.
"I'll fight for money for my electorate any way I can. I'd never do anything illegal. Any way you can get a greater outcome for your electorate, you get it. That's my job," Mr Joyce said last week.
The New England MP committed to advocate on behalf of the council over the emerging scandal.
Meanwhile Ms O'Brien, who called for an investigation into the matter, indicated she was also keeping a close eye on what happens next.
"I am looking forward to the Auditor General's investigation into this sad affair," she said.
Labor's government accountability spokeswoman Kristina Keneally has called for the auditor-general to probe what happened.
