By Jackson Russell
Sporting clubs that missed out on funding through the Community Sport Infrastructure program are being urged to make a submission to a Senate committee reviewing the distribution of funds through the ‘sports rort’ saga.
According to the Australian National Audit Office, 43 per cent of projects funded under the program were ineligible.
Member for McEwen Rob Mitchell said MPs and Senators haven’t been able to obtain information about which organisations in their electorates missed out on funding.
“We’re sort of hamstrung to be trying to get results for people when we don’t know who’s actually applied,” he said.
“If people have applied for these grants, we need to get them to come and let us know so we can go and fight on their behalf and find out if they were one of the many hundreds of grant applicants that missed out.
“We’ve got to get that information then we can go back and start the process of fighting to get that done and make sure that people are given a fair and equal opportunity on a level playing field to get the sports grants.”
Mr Mitchell said at the end of the day, the government should be able to say what has been funded has been funded correctly.
“The question has got to be why are we giving money to people who don’t deserve it while all the people who do actually deserve it, have done the right thing and earned the right are missing out?” he said.
To make a submission to the Senate committee, contact Mr Mitchell’s office on 5716 3000 or visit
