$200k Yankalilla Football Club grant not greenlit until months after Georgina Downer Mayo by-election announcement
Georgina Downer announced $200,000 in federal funding for Yankalilla Football Club more than a year before it was officially approved, raising questions about other grants programs.
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Georgina Downer announced $200,000 in federal funding for a Yankalilla Football Club upgrade more than a year before the grant was officially approved.
The then Liberal candidate for Mayo made the announcement before the 2018 by-election. The revelation raises more questions about pork-barrelling in grants programs.
It comes as pressure mounts on former sports minister Bridget McKenzie to resign over the $100 million sports grants scandal.
Ms Downer’s announcement of the football club funds was months before she presented Yankalilla Bowling Club with a novelty cheque ahead of the May 2019 federal election, sparking an investigation into the sports grants program.
The football club funding was from a different grants program.
The Advertiser has confirmed a grant, eventually totalling $220,000, for Yankalilla FC was only approved by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack on March 8, 2019. He approved it as Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister under the Community Development Grants program. A spokeswoman for Mr McCormack said the Government had “made the decision to uphold the commitments Liberal and Nationals candidates made during the 2018 by-elections”.
Funding for Yankalilla FC had been subject to “a value-for-money assessment” by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development before it could be approved, as was the process for all community development grants, she said.
“The assessment includes working with proponents to finalise project details including project scope, costs and timeframes,” the spokeswoman said. Mr McCormack was not regional development minister when Ms Downer made the announcement in July 2018, she said.
Labor’s sport spokesman Don Farrell said the Government was “quick to have unelected candidates announce funding” but seemed “in no rush to deliver the support it has promised Australian communities” when they failed to be elected.
Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie said the sports grants were a separate issue to the community development ones.
“Yankalilla Football Club needed that upgrade and I by no means begrudge them an election promise – a promise that can only be made by the Government and a promise that was honoured by the Government,” she said.
The club and Ms Downer did not return calls yesterday.
Ms McKenzie has come under renewed pressure to resign after a former staffer told Sky News they had raised concerns about how the sports grants were allocated in late 2018.
The staffer was quoted as saying the minister’s chief of staff had told them to “abide” by what the minister wanted.