Collingwood Football Club got ‘regional development’ grant for Melbourne site

Inner city Collingwood Football Club and a surf club patrolling Sydney’s Coogee beach won government grants for “regional development”, with hundreds of millions of dollars in funds under that category 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.

While these grants are classified as “regional development” by the government, some of the specific programs included in that category are open to regional and metropolitan communities.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said grants programs were a critical way for the government to deliver essential services to local communities.

“Many grant applicants are organisations with a state-wide or national presence and therefore they may lodge grant applications using a capital city address. This does not necessarily reflect where the work and community benefit will occur,” he said.

Labor’s infrastructure and regional development spokeswoman Catherine King said it wasn’t good enough to name check regional towns but not invest in them.

“Regional grants funding should go to projects in Singleton, Cloncurry, Gladstone or Launceston – not to Surry Hills, Carlton or inner-city Brisbane,” she said.

“The Morrison-Joyce government talks a big game when it comes to regional development, but these figures show that they continually favour projects based in the major cities.”

The ANAO report found that across all grants, just one in five were awarded using an open competitive process. High-value grants were more likely to be awarded through a closed, non-competitive process.

The most “one-off” grants are given out each May, when the federal budget is released, and their use has increased.

There were nearly 12,700 grants relating to COVID-19 identified, worth $3.7 billion. They accounted for almost a quarter of grants made during the pandemic.

The report identified continuing issues with the handling of grants by the government, departments and agencies.

It found one grant for aged care services handled by the Health Department was varied 65 times, the highest number of any grant. Reasons for changes were noted for only the first four changes, which included an increase in the grant and an extension in its length by two years.

In another case, a grant by the Education Department for a childcare services company was increased from $93.6 million to $468.1 million through a non-competitive process.

Twelve per cent of grants picked through an open and competitive process were approved before the closing date for applications.

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