Anthony Albanese has admitted he got it wrong after telling parliament a $۶m grant to a golf club in his electorate was to stop “raw sewage” going into the nearby river.
The grant given to Marrickville golf club in Sydney’s inner-west is under scrutiny as part of a larger $۵۶۰m invitation-only grants scheme, which transparency advocates say largely funded projects promised at the ۲۰۲۵ election in Labor-held seats.
Infrastructure department officials told a Senate estimates hearing on Monday afternoon the $۶m grant given to the club in Albanese’s electorate did not fund works to prevent raw sewage from flowing into the nearby river, contrary to the prime minister’s claims.
“I can confirm that sewerage is not a component of this grant,” the department’s assistant secretary, Jacinta McDonald, said.
The assistant education minister, Anthony Chisholm, defended the prime minister’s response, saying the scope had changed since the local council’s original proposal.
“I think that was part of the original plan. But as often happens, as the scope of these sorts of announcements happen, the scope can change, and the New South Wales government, is my understanding, stepped in in support of the sewerage work,” Chisholm said.
First reported by the ABC, Albanese, who holds honorary social membership at the club, has swatted away any criticism that he influenced, or benefitted from, the decision, which was signed off by another minister.
In question time in early September, the prime minister told the house the money would go toward “an environmental project stopping raw sewage going into the Cooks River during flooding”.
“[The golf club] has existed for a long time, almost a ۱۰۰ years, and they have a septic tank because it is on the floodplain, when it floods in Marrickville raw sewage flows into the Cooks River – that is what the funding is for,” Albanese said in another response to questions about his involvement in the decision-making process.
The prime minister was grilled repeatedly by the opposition about the grant in question time on Tuesday afternoon and the shadow energy minister, Dan Tehan, accused the prime minister of misleading the parliament, and urged him to correct the record.
In response, Albanese conceded “it was not correct” to say the funding was for sewerage works but said it was a matter for the infrastructure department, and noted the council was finalising the design of the project – including improvements to the clubhouse, stormwater harvesting, a new toilet and landscaping.
The NSW government committed in September ۲۰۲۵ to address sewerage infrastructure at the club, he said.
“I’m advised that the club, of course, has a long history. And indeed, in the media release announcing the project, it spoke about the venue’s last major remodel being in ۱۹۴۷. So this is a local club, owned by the council,” Albanese said.
“The [federal] funding was going to be for sewerage. The New South Wales government have stepped in, which is appropriate given that New South Wales run water and sewerage.”
