Sports grants row hits Tassie
ALMOST 75 per cent of $3.1 million in sports grants handed to Tasmanian clubs and local councils in the lead up to the federal election went to three target marginal seats.
It’s the local face of a $100 million sports grants scandal engulfing former sports minister Bridget McKenzie, who is facing mounting calls to resign after a damning audit report found blatant pork-barrelling.
Lyons, Bass and Braddon – the three hotly contested marginal seats at the 2019 election – got more than $2.3 million of the Tasmanian grants in the six months before the election.
Lyons was given six grants totalling $884,135, Braddon received five totalling $722,680, and Bass received four totalling $710,900, an analysis conducted by federal Labor shows.
Combined, it’s equal to 74 per cent of Tasmanian funding under the Federal Government’s
Community Sports Infrastructure Grants Program.
The safer seats of Clark and Franklin received 26 per cent.
Clark, held by independent MP Andrew Wilkie, received five grants totalling $240,982 and Franklin, held by Labor MP Julie Collins, received four grants worth $578,190.
Tennis Tasmania, in the seat of Bass, was given the largest grant of any recipient in the state. It received $500,000 to upgrade changing rooms, toilets and office facilities. Bass was won by Liberal Bridget Archer, and was one of the seats that secured Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s victory.
“It is incredibly disappointing that Tasmanian sporting clubs and organisations have missed out on funding because of the Morrison Government’s misuse of sporting grants,” Ms Collins said.
The Australian National Audit Office report highlighted Braddon when noting funds were not allocated to “the most meritorious” candidates within each electorate.
It said in the “targeted” electorate of Braddon the fourth and fifth-ranked applications were approved in round one, while the highest ranked application “was not approved for funding in any round”.
Senator McKenzie said yesterday: “Every single one of those 684 projects that were funded was eligible for funding under the guidelines.”