Anglesea Golf Club angered by sports grants snub

THE Anglesea Golf Club has expressed its disappointed about its application missing out in the federal Coalition’s controversial sports grants program, telling a Senate inquiry its members felt “angry and let down”.

The Community Sports and Infrastructure Fund (CSIF) had the merits of its awarding process called into question after the federal election, with the Australian National Audit Office releasing a highly critical report in January that found then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie had not followed Sports Australia guidelines about what applications should be funded.

Sport Australia set a threshold of applications needing a score of at least 74 out of 100 to be approved, but more than 400 projects below this score eventually received funding.

Conversely, many applicants that scored above 74 were not funded – the Anglesea Golf Club was one of these, with its $380,000 application to build a new pathway and upgrade its clubhouse and locker room facilities reportedly given a score of 84.

The Select Committee on Administration of Sports Grants held its fifth public hearing last week, with Anglesea Golf Club general manager David Sanders presenting his submission to the committee in Melbourne.

In his submission, Mr Sanders wrote the club’s sub-committee spent more than 50 hours on the application, preparing a 21-page business case, a seven-page demography report with 14 references and a 13-page risk management plan.

“The club believes that it has acted in good faith. It trusted that the selection process would be fair and that only applicants who scored highly would be funded.

“The club and all the members now feel angry and let down because they trusted that there would be a demonstrable fairness and equity in the grant funding approvals, but now finds that this appears not to have been the case.

“The members now believe that the only way to restore faith in the sports grant system is to fund all those projects that met the selection criteria and the grant approval of 74 or better ranking threshold.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly defended the administration of the CSIF program but has also said clubs that missed out could receive funding in the future.