Liberal MP Andrew Laming awarded $550,000 grant to rugby club linked to his staffer
TheLiberal National MP Andrew Laming awarded a $550,000 grant to a rugby club with links to one of his staff members as part of the government’s controversial female sports facilities grants program.
The grant is one of five that have been awarded to the club in the past three years through Laming, with four others nominated by the MP totalling $33,500.
Laming, who is under investigation by the Australian Electoral Commission for more than 30 Facebook pages he operated without disclosing his identity, is on leave from parliament after reports about his poor behaviour towards women.
While he has announced he will not contest the next election, Laming will remain in the Liberal National party and sit on the government benches, where the Coalition holds a one-seat majority.
As the government continues to resist pressure over Laming’s reported behaviour, Guardian Australia can reveal that Laming gave $550,000 to a sports club with links to a staff member in his electorate office.
The grant was awarded to the Southern Bay Cyclones rugby union club for the redevelopment of a clubhouse at the Charlie Buckler Memorial sports field at Redland Bay.
The secretary of the Southern Bay Cyclones is James Eaton, who is married to Laming’s electorate officer, Stephanie Eaton.
When Laming announced the grant, he posed with James Eaton at the clubhouse. Guardian Australia understands there was no disclosure of the personal link to one of his long-serving electoral officers.
At the time, the Southern Bay Cyclones president, Will Baker, welcomed the grant, describing it as “Andrew Laming’s federal funding of $500,000”.
The funding was awarded under the controversial $150m female facilities and water safety stream, which was never open to applications, with projects selected as election commitments and most located in Coalitionheld seats.
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The government’s GrantConnect portal shows that Laming has awarded the rugby club four other grants over the past three years, including a volunteer grant that went to the purchase of a new coffee machine.
Two volunteer grants worth a combined $8,500 were paid to the club, along with $25,000 in two separate grants under the Stronger Communities program.
Funds were used for a new scoreboard, a canteen renovation and other club upgrades.
The stronger communities program is a recurring grant scheme that hands $150,000 to each of Australia’s 151 federal electorates for the loosely defined goal of “delivering social benefits”.
Applicants are identified by local MPs and invited to submit an application, which are then considered through a closed, non-competitive process.
For volunteer grants, MPs nominate organisations but must declare any conflict of interest, with the department saying MPs must “take account of local need and program objectives: to help community organisations to support the efforts of Australia’s volunteers”.
The Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream funding program came under fire for its lack of departmental involvement in the lead-up to the last election and, despite an expectation that it would be open for applications, all $150m of the fund was spent during the election campaign.
“The FFWSS Program was not open to applications for grants. The projects were selected as election commitments,” a spokesperson for the department said at the time.
Guardian Australia has contacted the Southern Cyclones rugby club, Laming and the Eatons for comment.
On Wednesday, the social services and women’s safety minister, Anne Ruston, was asked about Laming’s behaviour and whether he remained a “fit and proper” person to sit in the Coalition party room.
She called on Laming to have a “very serious think about the implications of his actions on other people”.
“I think everybody in Australia think what’s he has done is abhorrent,” she said.
“I think we need to give Mr Laming a couple of weeks to reflect on that. I will be very interested in his response when he returns from that moment – that time of reflection.”