Constitutional Expert Criticizes Albanese Government Golf Grant Scheme

One of Australia’s leading constitutional experts has accused the Albanese government of “grey corruption” over a $6 million grant handed to the prime minister’s local golf club, declaring its grants system a “farce” that dressed up political favours as sound public policy.

University of Sydney professor emerita Anne Twomey delivered a blistering assessment of the scheme, warning that politicians should take “lessons in both federalism and integrity” before promising taxpayers’ money to local projects.

Twomey told a parliamentary inquiry that the Marrickville Golf Club, in Anthony Albanese’s electorate of Grayndler, had already received five federal grants totalling almost $58,000 before Albanese promised it the $6 million during the 2025 election campaign.

The earlier grants were made through programs where local MPs could nominate organisations for funding and were classified as “closed, non-competitive”. Twomey said this meant there was no meaningful comparison with other projects to establish whether the club had the greatest need for taxpayers’ money.

“They were effectively gifts of political largesse, funded by taxpayers,” she wrote in a submission to the Senate inquiry into the scheme.

The probe was sparked after the Centre for Public Integrity released an investigation in September which found nearly three-quarters of the Albanese government’s $560.9 million Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program was allocated to notionally Labor-held or competitive seats.

Twomey said the original design of the program was itself constitutionally invalid because the Commonwealth did not have a general power to directly fund local sporting and community facilities. The scheme was subsequently changed, so grants could flow through state or local government bodies under section 96 of the Constitution.

Twomey said that alteration appeared to make the Marrickville grant constitutionally valid. But she warned the government still had to comply with laws requiring public money to be spent efficiently, effectively, economically and ethically.

“The system is a farce, with the paperwork drafted to justify decisions already made without any consideration of merit, need, value for money or the public interest,” she wrote.

She said the grant rules had effectively been constructed to give the public appearance of integrity while allowing politicians to deliver promises already made.

Twomey pointed to the Marrickville club’s history of federal funding, including grants for clubhouse toilets and lockers, computer upgrades, energy-saving lights and benches around the course. Some were awarded while the Coalition was in government.

But Twomey noted Albanese was the local member throughout the period and had the power to nominate organisations under the relevant programs.

Albanese announced the $6.05 million commitment in April 2025, promising to “secure the future” of the club. The NSW government separately provided $269,500 in 2025 to connect the clubhouse to the sewer system and prevent reliance on septic tanks that could overflow during floods.

The announcement came without reference to his honorary membership of the club, which was later revealed by the ABC.

Albanese said he did not know he held the honorary membership and had not visited the clubhouse “for many, many years”.

Twomey invoked the Productivity Commission’s description of politically driven grants as “grey corruption” – a term used by commissioner Danielle Wood for government decisions that favour private or political interests over the national interest.

“Federal politicians should not be making election promises about specific local projects and should not be making promises for the spending of public money based on political self interest rather than the public interest,” she wrote.

Twomey also cited research by Labor MP Andrew Leigh, then an academic, into the Coalition’s sports grants scandal, arguing politically directed grants did not necessarily deliver electoral rewards.

“No, this is not about ‘being a good local member’,” she wrote. “It is about indulging in grey corruption and the misuse of public money at the public’s expense.”

Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King has defended the program as in line with longstanding practice and with updated rules and principles for grants.

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