Labor faces ‘sports rorts’ accusations as Auditor-General considers community battery grant probe

Labor promised 58 suburbs taxpayer-funded community battery grants before the 2022 election. The program now faces a possible probe by the Auditor-General.

Chris Bowen joins Labor’s then candidate for Robertson Gordon Reid in the NSW seat in April 2022 to announce a community battery if Labor was elected. Labor took Robertson from the Liberals.

The Auditor-General is considering probing a $29m Albanese government program delivering community batteries in suburbs across the country, amid accusations from independent South Australian MP Rebekha Sharkie it is “very similar” to the Coalition’s sports rorts fiasco.

Labor made an election promise in 2021 to install 400 community batteries under a plan to reduce power bills, cut emissions and lower the demand on the grid at peak times. While in opposition and in the lead-up to the May 2022 poll, the party announced 58 suburbs across every state and territory, except the Northern Territory, had been chosen to house batteries.

The Australian’s analysis of the 58 chosen suburbs shows 40 per cent were in marginal electorates (19 per cent Labor marginal seats and 21 per cent Coalition marginal seats), while 34 per cent were in fairly safe or safe Labor seats and 24 per cent in fairly safe or safe Coalition electorates.

One suburb was chosen in Greens leader Adam Bandt’s Melbourne electorate.

In total, 74 per cent of the suburbs were in seats Labor stood to gain or could easily hold.

“For me, it feels very similar to sports rorts,” Ms Sharkie told The Australian.

Ms Sharkie referred the first two rounds of the scheme to Auditor-General Grant Hehir in April after being told the South Australian suburbs in the electorates of Boothby, which Labor won off the Liberal Party, and Sturt, which remains in Liberal hands, had already been announced.

Auditor-General Grant Hehir. Picture Gary Ramage

Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie. Picture: Gary Ramage

Mr Hehir has included the program in a list of potential audits in 2023-24, saying the Australian National Audit Office would “assess the effectiveness of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s administration of round one of the Community Batteries for Household Solar program”.

Former independent senator Rex Patrick asked for details on how the DCCEEW determined the 58 suburbs under a Freedom of Information request instigated by Ms Sharkie.

James White, head of the department’s renewables and distributed energy branch, responded: “These selections were determined by the Australian Labor Party while in opposition, prior to the May 2022 federal election.

“The department was not involved in these decisions and therefore has no records or documents which show the criteria applied and processes involved in making and approving the selection of eligible locations and organisations.”

Ms Sharkie’s referral to the ANAO said: “The absence of relevant records held by the department calls into question whether the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, the Hon Chris Bowen, has been fully compliant with his statutory obligations in relation to this grant program.

“One would assume that ‘reasonable inquiries’ would include obtaining assessments and advice from the minister’s own department; however, it appears that only the political preferences of the Australian Labor Party had been given consideration. There is now concern that the selection of eligible locations and organisations for community batteries will not be skewed by partisan political calculations.”

Ms Sharkie, the member for Mayo, was invited to an information session last year for members, senators and their staff on how the community batteries program would work.

She later found out two SA locations had already been chosen under the scheme’s first round and on Sunday lashed Labor for deciding locations for community batteries from opposition without departmental oversight.

“There’s a predetermined outcome and we’re just going through the motions of having a grant round to try and legitimise this process,” she said. “We thought we (Mayo) would’ve been a really good candidate but we couldn’t even apply. It’s not just the idea of saving money (for households), it’s also about resilience. I just think this style of grant-making, I thought it was gone with sports rorts but really I don’t see a huge amount of difference.”

The Albanese government committed $224.3m in the October 2022 budget to roll out the 400 community batteries, which will store excess energy produced during the day from household solar for use in the evening.

A beautiful big community battery for Flemington-Kensington in my electorate. Will cut prices and emissions for a community that has done it tough and only a federal Labor Government will deliver it. Thanks to ⁦@Bowenchris⁩ for coming down for the day to announce it. 🔋🔌🌏 pic.twitter.com/iq9eUg6PRu

— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) November 26, 2021

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency was allocated $171m to deliver at least 342 batteries under the program’s third round, while $29m of the budget money was set aside for the first two rounds in which the 58 suburbs were chosen before the election.

Funding for the first two rounds has now closed and was administered by the Business Grants Hub, with organisations able to apply for grants worth at least $100,000 and at most $500,000 per suburb.

Mr Bowen’s spokesman said no government department was involved in choosing the 58 locations because they were election commitments made from opposition and departments work for the government of the day.

He added that any community interested in a battery could apply via ARENA’s application process, still open under round three. “The then Labor opposition announced an election commitment to roll out 400 community batteries across Australia. The suburbs of the first 58 … were announced as election commitments before the 2022 election,” the spokesman said.

Government sources said sports rorts, which engulfed the Morrison government and former sports minister Bridget McKenzie, was a different beast because the Coalition went against departmental recommendations for grants. Mr Hehir in 2020 found the Morrison government’s $100m Community Sport Infrastructure Program skewed funding decisions in favour of sporting clubs in marginal Coalition seats, as well as Labor and independent seats targeted by the Coalition.

Labor chose the first 58 locations for community batteries but hasn’t excluded other suburbs from being involved in the future, government sources said.

Mr Patrick, director of Transparency Warrior, is paid by Optical Superstore chief executive Ian Melrose to assist independent and teal MPs with FOI requests. Mr Melrose has also been a generous donor to crossbench MPs.