A senior Tasmanian government MP is at the centre of fresh questions about a perceived conflict of interest after a community project he and his family are involved with won $1 million in taxpayer funding following recent state and federal elections.
New information shows Tasmanian Speaker Mark Shelton met with the Meander Valley Council and personally received their request for state government assistance shortly before the government awarded $400,000 in taxpayer funding to the project to build a new hall in Bracknell, outside of Launceston.
Mr Shelton and three other members of his family sit on the Bracknell Hall's committee, which was involved in the scope, design, consultation, and budget for the project.
It is not known what action, if any, Mr Shelton took after meeting and receiving the letter from the council, however, within weeks, the former Premier's Office had directed Communities Tasmania to fund the Bracknell Hall redevelopment.
The Tasmanian government has previously defended funding the project in response to questions in parliament, saying a politician's association with a community group should not preclude that group from seeking funding.
It comes as the ABC can reveal former prime minister Scott Morrison's office signed off on redirecting $600,000 of community development grant money to the same project at the request of the council in 2020.
It means a total of $1 million in taxpayer money has been funnelled into building a new hall in the small northern Tasmanian town of Bracknell.
While there is no suggestion the project was not eligible, Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said the new information raised questions about Mr Shelton's involvement in the project.
"What we have here is $1 million in public funding that has gone through no merits-based process being directed to redeveloping Bracknell Hall," she said.
"There's a question about conflict of interest, there's a question about Mr Shelton who, along with a number of members of his family, are on the Bracknell Hall committee.
"It's really cosy, and there's a legitimate question about whether or not Bracknell Hall would have been able to receive or been eligible for $1 million in public funds if the local member wasn't also a member of the Bracknell Hall committee."
The Tasmanian government and Mr Shelton declined to provide a comment.
Last September, Sports Minister Nic Street, who was not the relevant minister when the Bracknell Hall received funding, faced questions about the $400,000 commitment for the Bracknell Hall in parliament.
At the time, he said the government makes decisions on funding priorities daily, and members of parliament are intrinsic members of their community by nature of being elected.
Funding flows after Premier's office green light
The small town of Bracknell, 25 minutes from Launceston in northern Tasmania, is home to just under 500 people, including Mr Shelton and a number of his family members.
In recent years, the hall committee has been pushing to replace a hall located at the town's football oval and working on the project's finer details.
Documents obtained from the Meander Valley Council under Right to Information laws show committee members were included in council email correspondence about the project.
The Meander Valley Council sought Tasmanian government funding for the Bracknell Hall redevelopment during the 2021 state election campaign after the project's estimated cost blew out to well over $1 million.
It initially missed out.
However, documents now reveal Mr Shelton met with the council's general manager in his role as an MP in early July 2021 — about two months after the May 1 election.
Two weeks after their meeting, in mid-July 2021, the council wrote to Mr Shelton in a letter that erroneously referred to him as "minister", formally requesting state government funding towards the hall.
It is not known whether Mr Shelton took any action in response to the request, however by late August, the former Premier's Office had directed the Communities Department to fund $400,000 for the Bracknell Hall from the balance of the "unused LCFF" — the controversial election grants program that the Liberals had used to make election promises.
At the time, there was confusion within the Tasmanian government over whether there was $5 million of "unused" cash left over in the program.
Multiple internal state government and council documents refer to the funding as an "election commitment" despite having been promised after the election.
The government has said this was an "administrative error".
The Bracknell Hall redevelopment ultimately had to be funded separately from the Local Communities Facilities Fund because there was no leftover money in the state election grants scheme.
Despite winning $1 million from both federal and state governments, a 2020 email from the council to the Bracknell Hall committee indicates that an application for money from the independently assessed Tasmanian Community Fund program had been unsuccessful.
Ms O'Connor said that raised questions.
"We've had two very large slices of public funding go towards this hall redevelopment through no proper process, no merits-based process, and indeed when Meander Valley Council made a submission to the Tasmanian Community Fund for funding … it didn't even get past stage one," she said.
Ms O'Connor said if not for months of investigation and right to information requests, this information would have remained unknown.
"It's only through investigative work that got anywhere near the truth about this $1 million that's gone to the Bracknell Hall redevelopment."
Tiny town on receiving end of money
Bracknell might be a small town, but it has regularly benefited from election grants over the past decade.
When Tasmania's Liberal government was first elected in 2014, they had promised $25,000 to upgrade the Bracknell football club's lights and ground.
In 2018, there was a $30,000 election promise for a new scoreboard and $80,000 for a Boys and Girls club based in the nearby hall.
Those 2018 promises sparked a referral to the Tasmanian Electoral Commission.
Tasmania Police later found there had not been a breach of Electoral Laws, while an Integrity Commission investigation found no evidence of misconduct before its investigation was discontinued.
Then, in 2021, a further $45,000 went to the Bracknell Football Club for new nets.
The government later signed off on a change of use for that money, so it could be spent on purchasing commercial equipment and upgrading club facilities.
Mr Shelton, who was first elected to Tasmania's House of Assembly in 2010, is a life member of the Bracknell Football Club and has family members on the club's committee.
Nine Tasmanian government MPs have been linked to groups that received funding under the 2021 election "Local Communities Facilities Fund" program.
The fund was the subject of a series of heated exchanges in parliament last year over its use by the Liberal Party to make election commitments — something opposition MPs told parliament was "electoral bribery".
The ABC has previously revealed funding for more than half of the grants promised during the campaign never went through parliamentary scrutiny.
Instead, the government asked Tasmania's Governor to sign off on them under a process designed for unforeseen urgent spending — something a parliamentary committee is now investigating.
One grant was announced by Mr Street for the Lindisfarne Country Women's Association branch during last April's election campaign — the same branch his family member was the treasurer of.
Of the grants that did go through parliament, one which had been announced by then-Liberal candidate Madeleine Ogilvie during the 2021 Tasmanian state election campaign, funnelled $150,000 into the rowing club where her daughter was a member.
Another $165,000 grant was awarded to St Vincent de Paul, the workplace of then-Liberal candidate Lara Alexander, for new vans.
Ms Alexander also signed off on the receipt of one $75,000 grant as president of the Rotary Club of South Launceston, which was delivered before she was elected on a recount.
Editor's note: March 1, 2023: The story originally referred to the Community Development Grants Program as being "at the heart of the 'sports rorts' saga". This is incorrect and the story has since been updated. We apologise for the error.
