MAPPED: See the latest SA sporting club grants by state electorate
Questions are being asked over why 12 successful sports grants were issued to SA councils and clubs in 11 Liberal-held seats and the electorate of an Independent MP. EXPLORE THE MAP.
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Sporting clubs across the state are busy finalising plans for a share in $6m worth of changeroom upgrades as more women and girls take to the footy field.
Questions are now being raised, however, over the latest allocation of State Government sporting grants because all but one of the successful applicants are in Liberal-held seats.
The Sunday Mail can report there were 40 eligible applications for round two of the Grassroots Football, Cricket and Netball Facility Program – 29 in Liberal electorates, nine in Labor and two in independent.
None of the 12 successful applicants – announced in mid-April and including councils and clubs – were in Labor electorates.
This compares to last year’s first round of grants in which 13 successful applicants were in Liberal-held seats and six in Labor, with the bulk of $6 million in funding shared almost equally between them.
Opposition sports spokeswoman Katrine Hildyard is calling on the government to provide details of the selection process for the latest round of grants, including a list of unsuccessful applicants, to ensure transparency.
She said the funding formula underpinning the grassroots program was unfair.
Ms Hildyard said the 50 per cent co-contribution required by clubs for the grant to proceed was skewing funds to those with the most money.
“The program is unfairly geared toward more financially secure clubs, meaning athletes in some areas are missing out,” she said.
CLICK EACH ELECTORATE TO SEE THE DATA.
“Clubs with huge demand for infrastructure and less money have no means of providing the co-contribution.”
Ms Hildyard said the previous Labor Government’s Female Facilities Program, which in its last year granted clubs $10 million, was allocated on merit, “not postcodes”.
However, Sports Minister Corey Wingard said sporting clubs and their players and supporters “couldn’t give a rat’s about electorate boundaries”.
“We won’t be … accused of favouring Liberal seats, because that’s simply not true,” he said.
“We’re about backing worthy projects, recommended to us by an independent panel following significant input from the codes, who are at the coalface and know where the money is needed most.”
The Opposition is also claiming its Labor offices were unaware that round two of the grant was open, as per the standard practice.
A Government spokeswoman said standard practice was followed, with grant details, including open and closing dates, posted on the websites of the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing (ORSR) and Grant Assist.
She said notice of round three details, including its April 30 closing date, was made to all MPs only because the grant program – $5 million this time around – was brought forward as part of the COVID-19 stimulus package.
In January, an audit found federal community sports grants were being approved without appropriate assessment and that the successful applications were not assessed based on guidelines.
The so-called Sports Rorts Affair came to light when then-Sports Minister Senator Bridget McKenzie favoured marginal, or targeted, Coalition electorates for grants in the lead-up to last year’s federal election.
South Australian National Football League CEO Jake Parkinson said the league, the SA Cricket Association and Netball SA made recommendations to ORSR for each grassroots grant application based on project-met strategic goals and facilities guidelines.
“SANFL supports any long-term, ongoing funding program which addresses the significant need for quality, well-designed shared-use facilities which cater for diversity and inclusion in sport,” he said.
“We have experienced a once-in-a-generation growth in female participation in football … which has created an urgent need to develop new and existing facilities right across the state.”
An SANFL audit has identified more than 90 per cent of changerooms in SA are still non-compliant for female footballers and umpires, with an estimated $160 million investment needed to improve facilities.
A Netball SA spokeswoman said that, in many cases, the 50 per cent co-contribution came from the local council where the club was located.
“(Electoral) seats do not factor in when we are supporting clubs in the application process or providing our strategic justification,” she said.
A SACA spokesman said there were several metropolitan projects that did not receive the required local government support for round two, and that SACA would continue to work constructively with those councils.
TIME FOR A CHANGE
Ten years ago, when the Tea Tree Gully District Sportsmans Club upgraded its changerooms, it could have counted the number of female footballers on one hand.
Today, more than 140 girls and women are among about 800 footballers and cricketers sharing facilities built for half that number – and without a unisex design in mind.
“The changerooms are in poor condition and all our players – male and female and those visiting our rooms – deserve better,” president Peter Martin said.
He said the Banksia Park club had been applying for funding to upgrade changerooms for the past six years. Finally, in April, the State Government granted $335,000, which was more than matched by the Tea Tree Gully Council and the club.
“We are ecstatic,” Mr Martin said.
“I really feel for other clubs that have not been so fortunate.”
About 15km southwest of the Tea Tree Gully District Sportsmans Club is the Gaza Sports & Community Club, in Klemzig.
Its president, Don Rosella, said the club had just missed out on a State Government grant to upgrade lighting to a standard suitable for SANFL division one and cricket night matches.
He said it was the club’s second application rejection for the same project under the same grant.
“The lighting is important, and we are disappointed,” he said. “But of greatest and more immediate concern is the need to upgrade clubrooms with unisex changerooms.”
-Rebecca DiGirolamo