In politics, the term pork-barrel refers to government spending that is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of campaign contributions or votes. This is done typically by diverting government funding for projects to a certain locale – through taxpayers’ money – even though it is likely to benefit only particular constituents or campaign contributors.

There’s a good example from The Australian in The PM rolls out his own pork barrel (3 June, 2008),  which claims 90 per cent of almost $150 million in regional grants announced by Labor during last year’s election campaign went to Labor-held or Labor-targeted marginal electorates.