$6M Golf Club Grant Shows Who Gets Public Money

Not one dollar of the $6 million handed to the Marrickville Golf Club in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's own Sydney electorate of Grayndler went to sewerage works. That's what bureaucrats admitted under questioning in Senate estimates this week. The money was awarded through an invitation-only process. The sewage fix was paid for by a separate state government grant. The federal cash will cover other things, including a clubhouse renovation and a new pro shop.

Who Has the Power

In September, about one month ago, Albanese said the grant was for stopping raw sewage flowing when people used the club's toilets. Told otherwise by the evidence, he informed parliament that "it was not correct" to say the money had been for sewerage. He did not apologise. The scope of the works, one opinion column notes, seems to have shifted as different bits of funding became available.

The process was never meant to be merit-based, the column says. It was an election promise, to be paid from the public purse if Labor won the 2025 election. The Centre for Public Integrity found the government gave three-quarters of grants under its $560 million, invitation-only infrastructure program to Labor-held electorates, the golf club's $6 million among them.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, naturally, has opinions. "He said he didn't mock the Japanese prime minister, when he did. He said he didn't fall off a stage when he did. He said his $6 million grant to the Marrickville Golf Club was to fix sewage flows when it wasn't. He said the relevant program wasn't invitation-only, when it was," Taylor told parliament. The Coalition says Albanese has "a difficult relationship with the truth."

Same Rort, Different Rosette

The Coalition's outrage has a history it would rather skip. The "sports rorts" affair centred on a $102.5 million community sports grants program under then-prime minister Scott Morrison's government. Sports Australia had ranked projects on merit. The auditor-general found in his 2020 report, six years ago, that the government discarded those rankings and spread the money with a bias towards marginal and Coalition-priority electorates. Then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie resigned after it emerged she was a member of the Wangaratta Clay Target Club, which received $36,000 in Commonwealth grants.

In 2020, as opposition leader, Albanese called it "this tawdry rort" that meant "legitimate sporting clubs" had missed out "in favour of the political process." He said it justified a federal anti-corruption commission. Two parties, one method: cash for the seats that count. Whoever holds the purse hands it to their own.

Jetting Off While Rates Climb

Albanese left Saturday for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, saying he went at the personal request of King Charles. Coalition figures accuse him of "jetting off" to the Caribbean while Australians struggle with the cost of living. Taylor says Australia may see "the 17th interest rate rise under Labor if the Reserve Bank moves on Tuesday, as is widely expected."

The summit programme includes a leaders' cricket match at the Viv Richards Stadium. Albanese won't play but will attend. Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest plans to sail into Antigua's port on the "Fortescue Green Pioneer." On the agenda: Australia's campaign for a UN Security Council seat in 2029-30, plus talks with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham on AI, fuel security and British backpacker numbers. The government has directed a "go slow" on processing UK working holiday visas, at about 80,000 per year, and introduced a visa lottery capping second-year visas at 45,000 and third-year visas at 5,000.

The Other Show in Town

If the major parties disappoint, the offered alternative is One Nation, which one column says is "heading towards the rock on which the Liberal Party shattered." The party surged after the Bondi massacre, and a study by Labor pollster John Utting in August confirmed new supporters came for the anti-immigration policies. It holds two House seats and four Senate seats.

The policy record is a mess of reversals. Farrer MP David Farley said immigration under One Nation would be "not too different" from Labor or Coalition proposals, after which the party declared net-negative migration. In February it backed a domestic gas reservation policy that Hanson said would "increase the supply of gas and lower the price of electricity directly." By June it had swapped it for a 30 per cent exploration tax break in return for a 30 per cent public equity stake in resulting production licences.

The insurgents' circle isn't exactly outside the machine. Chris Taylor, a former Scott Morrison adviser and Australian Banking Association policy chief, is Pauline Hanson's chief of staff, and he brought over Maxwell Pryor from the banking association. Donors include mining mogul Gina Rinehart. Albanese, meanwhile, is gearing up in the new year to fight a third election.