Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am really angry on behalf of volunteers and sporting organisations across the country who went into a competition that they thought had rules and would be played fairly, not knowing that this government would break rules, would not play fairly and would engage in industrial-scale rorting of Australian taxpayers' moneys through the Community Sport Infrastructure grants.

The Coledale Waves Football Club have increased their membership from 500 to 600 players in the past few years. Another 10 young people turned up recently because they'd heard how great the club is. The blatant rorts of the grants process is a slap in the face for community volunteers who keep groups like the Coledale Waves going. What has been particularly galling for the club and their volunteers is that nine of the successful grant applicants were submitted late, three or four months after the closing date. Our hardworking volunteers at Coledale Waves worked frantically to get their application in by the deadline. The fact that these late applications were funded is a further slap in the face for the team in my area. They worked very hard, putting hundreds of hours in. They have a massive team of women players—in fact, they've lost one team of women players because they couldn't get the upgrades that are needed. This government should hang its head in shame. It should do the right thing by these clubs.