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Old Barker Rugby Club also received $863,563 to upgrade its female facilities at Turramurra Memorial Park.
Labor holds 22 Sydney seats, but five projects totalling $13.1 million were funded in Labor electorates.
These included: $5 million for the Western Sydney Football park project in Blacktown, $5 million to Blacktown Council for two new playing courts at Kevin Betts Stadium in Mt Druitt, and $1 million for netball courts and a car park extension at Enfield Aquatic Centre.
More than $51 million has been granted to projects in Liberal seats since the Greater Sydney Sports Facility Fund was established in 2018, amounting to 70 per cent of the $73 million funding pool allocated.
The Berejiklian government assigned the fund $100 million in 2018, to be distributed over three years, with next year the final year of the program.
The fund was first embroiled in controversy in January, after the Herald revealed 12 of the 15 grants issued in the inaugural funding round were announced by Liberal MPs and candidates ahead of the 2019 state election.
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It later emerged then sports minister Stuart Ayres directly intervened in the assessment process, including hand-picking five of the 15 successful projects at the final approvals stage.
Labor labelled the program a pre-election “slush fund”.
Many of the grants awarded in the latest funding round, announced in June, were also spruiked by MPs in community newspapers or at media events with the recipients – either a sporting organisation or a local council.
The Office of Sport and Acting Sports Minister Geoff Lee declined to say whether the grants process considered which electorates projects were located in when assessing the applications.
On its website, the Office of Sport categorises the successful projects by local government area, not electorates. An Office of Sports spokesman said the projects were assessed by an independent panel which also considered “the spread of projects by greater Sydney districts when making recommendations”.
“The Acting Minister for Sport approved the recommendations of the Grant Assessment Panel and the Office of Sport during the latest round of the Greater Sydney Sports Facility Fund,” the spokesman said.
The term “greater Sydney districts” refers the Department of Planning’s classification of Sydney into five areas: an eastern city, central city and a western city, as well as a north and south district.
Labor’s sports spokeswoman Lynda Voltz urged the government to release the Office of Sports’ written recommendations for all of the applications it received.
“The Greater Sydney Sports Grants were meant to deal with increased density and access across Sydney, however, yet again we see these grants top heavy in Liberal seats particularly in the North Shore,” Ms Voltz said.
“Why is North Sydney Pool, which has already received Federal Government funding, and Palm Beach Golf Club being put ahead of large growth areas such as Liverpool and Campbelltown?”
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Lisa Visentin is a state political reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
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