Just $9m of Coalition's $150m fund for female sport and swimming pools delivered
Just $9m of the Coalition’s $150m fund for female sport facilities and swimming pools has been delivered more than a year after the 2019 election, prompting renewed calls for an audit into the program.
The $150m female facilities and water safety stream program was never open to applications and projects were selected as election commitments, with most located in Coalition-held seats or those that it was targeting.
Labor and the Greens have seized on the new figure to argue the program was used as a “slush fund” to boost the Coalition’s re-election chances and big-ticket spending promises have not materialised into sporting facilities.
The sports minister, Richard Colbeck, and health department insist the four-year program is on track to deliver on promises including multimilliondollar aquatic centres by 2022-23.
In December 2019, the health department told Senate estimates on notice that just one grant had been made in the first six months of the program: $420,000 for female change rooms for the Brisbane City Football Club.
On Friday a health department spokeswoman told Guardian Australia that “up to the 12th May 2020, the department … has executed 20 grant agreements across the country with a value of $8.8m [excluding] GST”.
The 20 projects funded so far include:
$1.4m for change rooms at the Narrandera football and netball clubs.
$1.1m for the Lysterfield junior football club pavilion redevelopment in Knox City.
$550,000 grants to each of the Drummoyne water polo club, Tumut Bulls rugby union club, Broulee surf life saving club, Emerald sporting club, and Southern Bay Cyclones junior rugby union club.
$450,000 to the City of Parramatta for the Roselea football club and Carlingford oval redevelopment.
The departmental spokeswoman explained the delay by stating that very large projects “require more due diligence and planning before the agreements can be executed” while “there are also smaller projects where the relevant information is still being gathered by proponents”.
“Covid-19 has also slowed the ability for many grant recipients to provide their inputs, though active and positive communication continues.”
The departmental spokeswoman said draft project agreements will be sent to recipients in June 2020, to be finalised within three to four months before major capital projects begin in 2020-21 and final payments are made by 2022-23.
In February Guardian Australia reported that key seats set to benefit from the program included Braddon in Tasmania, Boothby in South Australia, Gilmore in New South Wales, Brisbane in Queensland, Corangamite in Victoria, and Pearce and Swan in Western Australia.
The largest grants were for the Ellenbrook pool in the attorney general Christian Porter’s marginal seat
of Pearce ($25m), the Torquay pool ($20m) and Bellarine aquatic centre ($10m) in the then Liberal MP Sarah Henderson’s marginal seat of Corangamite and $20m for the South Perth aquatic centre in the Liberal MP Steve Irons’ seat of Swan.
In February, Guardian Australia revealed that $4.5m was allocated to build a tidal pool in Port Macquarie, in the Nationals-held seat of Cowper, despite the opposition of the local council and no site having been chosen for the pool.
The Labor shadow sports minister, Don Farrell, said it was “appalling” just $9m of the fund had actually been delivered, accusing the Coalition of “splashing big bucks into swimming pools that communities and schools in some cases didn’t want or had no idea they were getting”.
“It’s been crystal clear from the start that this was a super-sized slush fund designed to give Coalition MPs and candidates big announcements ahead of the election,” he said.
“How many women and girls will still be getting changed behind the sheds when sport resumes because of the Morrison government’s failure to keep its promises?
“Just like the community sports infrastructure grants program, the benefits to the Coalition’s re-election chances came first and the benefits to the community were an afterthought, if not completely sidelined.”
The Greens senator Janet Rice said the program was “classic Scotty [Morrison] from marketing – all spin and no substance”.
“All these promises were made so the Morrison government could buy their way back into power.
“But the Coalition is so incompetent, they didn’t even follow through on their own rorts this time.”
Colbeck said the FFWSS is a “fouryear program with individual projects phased to deliver over that time”.
“It is expected that most of the funded projects will be under way within the next 12 months,” he said.
The Greens have referred the FFWSS program to the Australian National Audit Office. In January the ANAO released a scathing report into the $100m community sports infrastructure grants program, finding it was skewed towards target and marginal seats by the then sports minister Bridget McKenzie’s office.
In February the ANAO responded that it will consider including the FFWSS audit in its program of works, expected to be released in July.