![]() On Friday, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the FFWSS program was “sports rorts on steroids again”, describing it as “a program with no guidelines, $150m of taxpayers money, abused for political purposes where the only guidelines were the electoral map and the political interests of the government”. When grants to Kooyong and Farrer, Coalition-held seats under threat despite larger margins, are considered, some 73% of projects were located in marginal or at-risk seats.īy dollar value, $111m of the program’s $150m of grants was spent in marginal seats. “Projects of this size and scale always take time to deliver as they need to have their environmental and social impacts and benefits properly assessed,” he said.Ĭonaghan said the feasibility study was already complete and the next step is to prepare a development application.Ī Guardian Australia analysis of the 41 projects awarded FFWSS funding found that 58.5% were in marginal seats, including $30m for two pools in the Victorian seat of Corangamite, $25m in Christian Porter’s West Australian seat of Pearce and $20m in the WA seat of Swan. “From the time you decide you want to build a tidal pool to the time you open it, can take from two to five years.”Ĭonaghan told Guardian Australia: “Port Macquarie is a town of 45,000 people and has only one public swimming pool, so this tidal pool will deliver great sport and recreational benefits, plus the health and tourism benefits from having an alternative to a chlorinated pool.” “But like any complex piece of infrastructure it takes longer, with the to-ing and fro-ing it takes about six months.” ![]() “To actually do a feasibility study, the technical work, takes three months – in a dictatorship it would happen in three months,” he said. Until we’ve contracted – until whoever is going to build it is contracted, we’re still in the feasibility and planning stage.”Ĭarley told Guardian Australia he had assessed seven potential sites but the process of selecting one and conducting a full feasibility study is “still ongoing”. Josh Rummery, a local mortgage broker and a member of the tidal pool committee, told Guardian Australia it “doesn’t have any of that yet” and said he had “no idea” if it would be given the grant to build the pool.Īsked when the pool is likely to be built, Rummery replied: “It would be lovely if we could build it today. The tidal pool committee has said it is spending the $50,000 grant on environmental geomorphic and site studies conducted by James Carley, principal engineer of water laboratory at the University of NSW and Nicole Larkin, an architect and tidal pool designer. The resolution also called on the tidal pool committee to “make any future requests, submissions and grant applications through council’s recognised engagement processes to ensure that the competing priorities of all volunteer and community groups in our area receive appropriate and equal consideration by council”. Port Macquarie is in the seat of Cowper, which was held by retiring Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker on a 4.5% margin but was once again under threat from the former independent MP for Lyne, Rob Oakeshott.Īt a meeting on 16 May, 2018 the Port Macquarie Hastings council noted two petitions in favour of the pool but resolved that “an ocean tidal pool in Port Macquarie is not a priority for council” – a decision taken due to the uncertainty around the project’s future and a preference to focus on reconstruction of the Port Macquarie Aquatic Centre. Scott Morrison and Nationals candidate Pat Conaghan announced the $4.5m grant on 9 May, 2019, citing a 18,000 signature petition to the council as evidence of community support for the project. On Friday the department clarified the “administrative error”, stating the intended grant recipient is not the council but the Port Macquarie Tidal Pool Committee Incorporated, a charity formed in July 2018 to lobby government for funding for the pool that received $50,000 from the New South Wales government for a feasibility study.
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