Inner city Collingwood Football Club and a surf club patrolling Sydney’s Coogee beach won government grants that were supposed to aid regional Australia, with hundreds of millions of dollars in regional development funds found to have gone to major cities.
A review of recent government handouts has revealed that of the 6668 grants earmarked for regional development, 55 per cent went to major cities. These were worth $624 million, or 27 per cent of the $2.3 billion regional development grants pool.
Collingwood got $16.5 million from a regional development grant fund for a sports medical hub.Credit:Getty Images
Another $860 million of grants went to “inner regional” areas. Just $181 million of grants, accounting for just 4.6 per cent of the total number, went to remote or very remote parts of the country.
In a comprehensive report released on Tuesday, the Auditor-General’s office examined 108,206 grants collectively worth $60.2 billion that were handed out between the end of December 2017 and the end of June 2021.
The largest portion of taxpayer money – more than $22.6 billion – was given out in 2018-19, which covered the last federal election. The second-highest number of grants, both in terms of quantity and dollars, awarded in any month was in March 2019. Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the election on April 11.
The analysis adds to pressure on the government over how it hands out taxpayers’ money. The latest round of the Building Better Regions Fund disproportionately favoured Coalition electorates, as did a commuter car parks program announced in the lead-up to the 2019 election that was the subject of a scathing audit in June.
The regional development grants category included $16.5 million given to the Collingwood Football Club to build a sports medical research hub, while other money flowed to projects in the nearby suburbs of Brunswick and Preston. Another $13,200 went to upgrade a playground at a South Yarra kindergarten.
In Sydney, $7.2 million went into a sports centre and swimming pool in Campbelltown. The Coogee Surf Club received $5500, a further $22,000 went to the Sydney Cricket Club to install safety sight screens at Drummoyne oval, while a similar amount was spent to upgrade the change rooms of the Balmoral Sailing Club.
Collingwood Football Club got regional development grant for Melbourne site
Source: Philippines Alive
