A North Sydney Swimming Pool Got $10 Million In “Regional” Funding, Which Seems Odd

It’s hard to think of anything less regional than a swimming pool in one of the most affluent areas of our biggest metropolitan city.

Yet, somehow, the government decided the North Sydney Olympic Pool was a worthy recipient of $10 million from a regional grant program.

The (mis)use of funds has put the heat back on the government and the recent sports rorts scandal, where worthy projects missed out on funding which instead went to seats the government wanted to win in the election.

Surprise surprise, upgrading the pool just happened to be an LNP election commitment.

Watching the Liberals And Nationals justify giving $10M to North a Sydney pool under a regional grants program. “Historically regional”. FFS, when will everyone wake up and say “This is not OK”? This is our money as tax payers being used to buy votes. #auspol #rorts

— Aaron H (@AaronInTheRiff) February 26, 2020

How The Hell Could They Justify Sydney Being “Regional”?

The North Sydney Olympic Pool is arguably one of the most Instagrammed pools in Australia, right up there with Bondi Icebergs. It sits right underneath the Harbour Bridge, and yes, the views are pretty great.

But the pool is getting old, and North Sydney Council have been looking for funding to preserve the heritage of the iconic swim spot.

In April 2019, a month before the federal election, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced a $10 million upgrade as part of their election commitments.

But since the sports rort scandal people have been taking a closer look at those old funding commitments, and it’s since emerged that $10 million came out of a fund to upgrade community pools in remote and regional areas.

if you think about it, australia is a bit regional compared to the rest of the world so I think by extension that makes a pool underneath the harbour bridge regional as well. I have a double digit IQ

— chad dilbert (@NormelGuy) February 26, 2020

The actual program was the Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream, and was intended to remove barriers for regional women participating in sport.

Now even members of North Sydney Council feel uncomfortable knowing where the money came from, with independent councillor Zoe Baker pointing out the obvious to the ABC’s 7.30 program — “we’re not regional”.

I used the pool when I lived in Sydney and now live in Wollongong so therefore their argument is totes legit #ffs #SportsRort

— Wayward Tory Hayward (@ToryHayward) February 26, 2020

“I think there’s an expectation from all communities that funds that are set aside for a particular purpose, that they’ll be allocated for the maximum benefit of those in need,” she said.

But Mayor Jilly Gibson tried to defend the money by claiming “it has a history of being a regional pool”.

“We have people from all over the state coming to use our pool … every day of the week we have local visitors, visitors from interstate, and a lot of overseas tourists going through the turnstiles,” she said.

“This is not just a suburban swimming pool. This is an iconic Sydney pool.”

I’m guessing people from overseas occasionally use it. Maybe the North Sydney council should but their hand up for French, or US funding “Well, we are kind of are a Parisian pool because we serve crepes at the cafe…”

— Blurbman (@blurbman) February 26, 2020

This makes Penrith technically the Outback.

— Brynhildur Kristjana (@maddog2000) February 26, 2020

Sports Rorts Scandal Not Going Away

The sports rort scandal has been dogging the government for weeks now, and has already forced Senator Bridget McKenzie to quit her role. For more of an explainer, click here.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is also getting drawn deeper into the scandal after it was revealed his office and the office of McKenzie, who was then the sports minister exchanged 136 emails about the program.

A Senate inquiry into the sports rort program began this morning.

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Image: Piqsels