It was referred to as Malcolm Turnbull's "captain's call" by his political opponents at the time.
A $443 million, record-breaking grant given in 2018 to a small conservation organisation, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF).
The ABC can reveal that when the Labor government took power in 2022, there was only $5.2 million of uncommitted funds left.
The funding partnership between Turnbull's LNP government and the foundation — known as the Reef Trust Partnership — set out goals and objectives for the foundation to meet, in an overall attempt to improve the reef's health. This is due to end in June 2024.
The Coalition's decision to give the money to the virtually unheard-of organisation caused an uproar.
It then became clear the GBRF was too small to manage it, and would therefore require a spend of millions to scale up.
But despite this, the foundation has spent the money transparently and adequately, according to numerous experts the ABC has spoken to and a second audit by Australia's auditor-general in 2021.
Following the Labor government's announcement this week of a new allocation of funds to combat water contamination, worth $150 million, here's a look back at the Turnbull government's controversial funding decision five years ago that caught so many by surprise.
What was the controversy?
The foundation was tasked with improving management of the reef, protecting its attributes and managing its key threats.
The money was paid in full in 2018 for delivery over six years, ending in June 2024.
When the Coalition announced the funding, the foundation had six full-time employees.
In 2019, both a senate committee and Australia's auditor-general found the grant to be an unsound decision.
The decision had no tender process, and the foundation had not been consulted prior.
The auditor-general found the foundation was too small to receive so much money.
By 2020, it had spent $19.7 million on administration and fundraising fees to scale up, and did not expect to exceed the $44.3 million spending cap for that purpose.
The funding agreement left out any reference of using the $443 million to deal with climate change as a cause of the reef's degradation.
How much money is left?
In 2018 and again in early 2022, the Labor party confirmed if they ever won government, they would strip the funding from the foundation, and re-distribute it.
But when they came into office last year with two years left of the funding agreement there was only $5.2 million left.
"It's really natural that in a duration such as this, at this point, a large majority of funding would be committed, " Anna Marsden, the foundation's managing director, said.
In 2018, the foundation released a plan to raise up $400 million by 2024 on top of the grant through philanthropy, corporate sponsorship, public donations and pooled resources.
So far, it has raised $256 million, which is being incorporated into the funding partnership's projects.
Where has the money gone?
The fact the funding partnership drew such scrutiny from its beginnings has meant that the money has been spent transparently and with total accountability, according to Ms Marsden.
"I really do think that that has been a consequence of the [funding] coming into this world in the way that it has," she said.
According to Jaimi Webster, a reef water quality manager with the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS), the foundation's program is very thorough.
"They were really transparent about how the program was going to be set up and where the investment was going," she said.
From 2018 to 2022, organisations were paid a share of the $238,974,452, which included:
- The CSIRO
- James Cook University
- Sugar Research Australia
- Bundaberg Fruit & Vegetable Growers Cooperative Limited
- Girringun Aboriginal Corporation
- Port Douglas Daintree Tourism Limited
- Earthwatch Institute
- NCEconomics (economic and policy consultancy, specialising in natural resources)
- BRIA Irrigators (business consultancy)
- Intellidesign (design and manufacturing company)
Out of the six key areas (known as components) of the funding agreement, here is a breakdown of where the money has gone up until the latest financial documents.
- Water quality: $101,738,994
- Crown of Thorn Starfish: $37,810,345
- Reef Restoration and Adaptation Science: $48,893,424
- Community reef protection: $4,008,728
- Traditional owner reef protection: $11,009,274
- Integrated Monitoring and Reporting: $13,008,687
Ms Marsden said that funding allocation was set out in the agreement.
Overall, the Foundation has committed $387 million, with 515 partners and 375 projects in the funding partnership.
Of those projects, 37 per cent use citizen science, and 63 per cent include direct Traditional Owner participation.
Ms Marsden said they are on track to meeting their targets.
Was the money spent appropriately?
The foundation was reviewed by the auditor-general again in 2021. It found the funds had been invested appropriately.
But they were pulled up on their administrative and scaling-up fees.
There procurements were found to be insufficiently open and competitive approaches, and there weren't always written contracts with their vendors.
The foundation agreed to fix their procurement processes.
Water quality has received around 40 per cent of the funding.
Some has gone to improving farming practices, to reduce harmful runoff from agriculture.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek's announcement on Thursday is also an investment into repairing land catchments, such as revegetation, grazing management of cattle, and structural works to stabilise gullies and riverbanks.
Ms Webster said there are risks to focusing on farming because it can slow down progress.
"It doesn't guarantee that they're going to continue those water quality improvement practices forever because they could get the grant and then give it up a year later when the funding runs out," she said.
Ms Marsden said this isn't an issue the foundation has run into thus far.
Need for further accountability
Five years on from the controversy and after pulling remaining money from the foundation, the federal Labor government continues to announce packages of funding, as a part of their $1.2 billion reef election promise.
Ms Webster said that Thursday's $150 million announcement is an example of their focus on reducing sediment run off into the reef, while they fail to properly invest in costal wetland restoration.
"[Wetlands] help filter the water that runs off the land, trapping nutrient pollution that damages the marine environment and coral reefs," she said.
Ms Webster said that although this week's announcement is welcomed, the AMCS wants to know how and where the money will be spent.
"This funding needs to go towards tackling the biggest polluting gullies and streambanks, and projects need to have strong measurable pollution reduction targets to ensure a high level of accountability and transparency," she said.
