"What steps did you take or the PM take to satisfy yourself that the [Great Barrier Reef Foundation] was the best organisation to accept this grant?"

In an interview with veteran journalist Barrie Cassidy, energy and environment minister Josh Frydenberg was unable to say what steps had been taken to ensure that the controversial Great Barrier Reef Foundation grant had been handed out to the best organisation.

Cassidy, host of the Sunday morning ABC program Insiders, broached the topic of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation by asking:

“What steps did you take or the PM take to satisfy yourself that the foundation was the best organisation to accept this grant?”

“Well the department has made it very clear,” Frydenberg said, “that the foundation is the best organisation where we can leverage-”

Cassidy interrupted:

“What steps were taken to satisfy yourself that that’s the case?”

Frydenberg stuck to his line, before being interrupted again.

“What did they do? What did you do? What did the prime minister do to satisfy yourselves that there was nobody else out there that was better qualified than the foundation to take the money?”

After Frydenberg emphasised that the foundation was the best organisation to take the money, Cassidy asked one last time.

“What did you do to satisfy yourself of that?”

“There was extensive due diligence done,” Frydenberg replied.

Here’s that bit of the interview:

.@barriecassidy asks @joshfrydenberg: what steps did you take, or did the Prime Minister take, to satisfy yourself that the Great Barrier Reef foundation was the best organisation to accept this grant? #Insiders #auspol pic.twitter.com/odZaJfAThU — Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) August 11, 2018

Frydenberg also answered questions about why the foundation was given the grant as a lump sum payment.

The interview comes after weeks of pressure from political opposition over a $443.8 that was handed to the relatively unknown Great Barrier Reef Foundation, a not-for-profit that has focussed on innovative scientific solutions to reef destruction over the past decade.

Questions have been raised over the foundation’s ties to the mining and banking industries: its board is populated by key business leaders with past and current stakes in corporations such as Commonwealth Bank, Suncorp, Origin Energy and GE Mining.

Critics have also asked why there was no formal tender process for the large grant. Usually, the government accepts proposals from a range of organisations — in this case, tender proposals could have come from government agencies such as the CSIRO — before settling on a best bidder.

The government has hit back at criticism by saying that a transparent, 100-page agreement was reached, and that the Australian National Audit Office will be able to investigate any overreach.

The Great Barrier Reef Foundation themselves have defended the grant.

“Of course we’ve got to do some scaling up,” Anna Marsden, the managing director of the foundation, told ABC Radio National. “The money that’s been entrusted to us through this grant is asking us to do what we’ve done for 18 years, which is fundraise for the reef and design projects and partnerships.”