Anthony Albanese has faced accusations of misleading Parliament after officials confirmed that a $6.05 million grant to Marrickville Golf Club did not cover sewerage works, despite the Prime Minister saying they were a key part of the project.
The discrepancy emerged during Senate Estimates on Monday night, when Infrastructure Department officials repeatedly told senators that addressing sewerage problems at the golf club in Albanese’s inner-Sydney electorate was not included in the grant agreement.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie led the questioning, drawing attention to statements the Prime Minister made in Parliament as recently as September.
Asked whether the project covered repairs to the site’s sewerage system, including pollution affecting the nearby Cooks River, Assistant Secretary Jacinta McDonald said it did not.
“Senator, I can confirm that sewerage is not a component of this grant,” McDonald said.
McKenzie then asked whether sewerage works appeared in any of the briefs supporting the grant’s approval.
“It does not include sewerage works,” McDonald replied.
The department’s evidence appeared to conflict with remarks Albanese made in Parliament on September 10 while discussing the Marrickville Golf Club project.
Bridget McKenzie (pictured) accused Anthony Albanese of misleading Parliament
“Included in [the Marrickville Golf Club grant] was funding to fix the sewerage because it goes into the river and causes a problem when it floods,” Albanese said.
McKenzie said the Prime Minister’s statement did not align with the evidence given by departmental officials.
“The Prime Minister stood up in the House of Representatives and said this grant was to fund sewerage works … (but) departmental officials correctly identify, this grant was never for sewerage,” she said.
The senator also cited comments from Infrastructure Minister Catherine King in a News24 interview broadcast on Sunday.
“My understanding is very clear, that it is both for sewerage works and some of the facilities development out there,” King said.
Despite those comments, department officials continued to insist that sewerage work was not covered by the grant.
The government sought to explain the apparent inconsistency by saying sewerage upgrades had been part of the original election commitment, before the NSW Labor government provided separate funding for that work.
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“I think that was part of the original plan, but as often happens, the scope can change as these sorts of announcements develop,” Assistant Minister for Regional Development Anthony Chisholm told the committee.
Albanese (pictured) said the Marrickville Golf Club upgrade was intended to address “sewerage” issues
Chisholm said the NSW government funded sewerage-related work at the club in September 2025, meaning the Commonwealth no longer needed to finance that part of the project.
That explanation raised fresh questions about why the federal government awarded the full grant after another government had already funded a major component of the proposed upgrade.
Liberal senator Paul Scarr questioned whether taxpayers were still receiving value for money.
‘If an election commitment is made to do A, B and C for a golf club, and then A’s already been done, I would have thought the natural response would be, ‘Well, we decrease that project amount by what was attributable to A’,’ he said.
‘Maybe a golf club or bowls club in my home state of Queensland could get that money.’
Officials did not directly answer whether the project had been reassessed after NSW assumed responsibility for the sewerage component.
Instead, they pointed to the broad wording of Albanese’s election announcement, which promised $6.05million to upgrade and ‘secure the future of the golf club’.
‘That’s the issue. All you had was the press release, so you could drive a bus through it,’ Scarr said.
Officials said the $6million Marrickville Golf Club upgrade did not include fixes to sewerage
The hearing also revealed the department had not approached King’s office to clarify the difference between stormwater and sewerage works.
McKenzie called on Albanese to correct the parliamentary record.
‘It is a very, very serious issue to deliberately mislead Parliament,’ she said.
Daily Mail contacted Anthony Albanese and Catherine King for comment.
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