By Oliver Lees
Kyneton District Soccer Club should receive $460,000 in funding from the Australian government to upgrade its oval, according to the findings of a Senate inquiry into the Community Infrastructure Grants program.
The findings, released last week by the Senate committee, found “overwhelming evidence” that marginal electorates were targeted in the process of allocating funding in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election.
The grants program, commonly known as ‘sports rorts’, was embroiled in controversy following revelations that deserved programs were denied grants for political gain, ultimately forcing the former sport minister Bridget McKenzie to resign.
The Kyneton District Football Club falls within the seat of Bendigo, which held a Labor preferred margin of 4 per cent before the last election.
Kyneton District Soccer Club president Ron Cole said the club has been “heavily impacted” by the federal government’s decision not to allocate much-needed funding to improve the drainage at their oval.
The club’s first practice match of the season was called off last week as rainfall made the surface unplayable.
“It started to rain and because there is no drainage at our oval, the referee had no choice but to call the game off at half-time,” Mr Cole said.
“How and if our season is going to run is our biggest concern at the moment, we’re not even sure if we’re going to be able to train this week.”
Mr Cole said the entirety of the funding would be used to improve drainage and resurface.
“These [inquiry] results should have been made public months ago, whether it actually goes ahead and they follow through is another story.”
Federal Member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters backed the recommendations of the inquiry and said the federal government “has badly damaged public faith in the administration of grants” .
“By failing to fund the clubs, councils and community organisations it wronged, the Morrison
government has shown that it only supports grassroots sport when there’s a political benefit”, Ms Chesters said.
Suitability for funding was originally determined by Sport Australia, which set a rating threshold of 74 out of 100 for clubs to be eligible. Kyneton District Football Club scored 87 on this metric but did not receive any funding.
In response to the committee’s findings, Minister for Sport Richard Colbeck told Star Weekly the federal government stands by its choice of grant allocation.
“Critically, if Labor and the Greens’ position on the program’s assessment and recommendations to the minister had been adopted, then far fewer local sporting projects would have been funded,” he said.
“We have seen first-hand the positive impacts the program has been delivering for so many grassroots sporting organisations and local communities, including the Bendigo electorate.”
The federal government funded five projects in the Bendigo electorate valued at $776,600.00 across the three rounds of the program.
