Inverell Shire Council Mayor Paul Harmon believes the relationship between current Infrastructure Minister Catherine King and New England MP Barnaby Joyce cost Council federal funding for the Inverell Swimming Pool redevelopment.
Speaking on STA FM Thursday morning, Mayor Harmon explained Council had sought $10 million for the swimming pool development from the former Coalition government’s Building Better Regions Fund which was discontinued by the Albanese government in October 2022 and replaced by the Growing Regions Program by Minister King.
The Minister highlighted at the time the Australian National Audit Office found the Building Better Regions Fund grants favoured National Party electorates and were not awarded on the basis of merit, but on the basis of rules that were not made clear to all applicants.
Ms King called on the then Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce to immediately release these secret, colour-coded spreadsheets and apologise to the communities ‘that they have dudded through this dodgy grants program.’
She says ‘Councils used to call the Building Better Regions Fund a lottery, but now we know that it is nothing more than another taxpayer fund shamelessly hijacked by Barnaby Joyce.’
Cr Harmon says their application was submitted to the new fund which he believes met all the criteria but believes Minister King and Mr Joyce’s dislike for each other resulted in the application being denied.
