While many shires use grants for water infrastructure projects, Labor questions if money should go directly to farmers

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Music festivals, cemetery upgrades, public toilets and a virtual gym are among the hundreds of projects to ­receive federal grants under the government’s signature Drought Communities Program.

As the government fends off criticism of its national drought response, a Guardian Australia analysis of $100m in grants awarded under the program in 2019 shows that while many shires have used the grant program for water infrastructure projects, much of the funding has been spent on events, the purchase of equipment and maintenance work.

The Winton council in Queensland used part of its grant funding to provide $820,000 to the Way Out West fest – a music festival that includes high-profile international acts that has been running since 2018.

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Gunnedah council spent about $40,000 on “two great country music events” that were supported by the Gunnedah Show Society and Gunnedah Rugby Club, including a ‘Day with the Devils’ and ‘5th Annual Country Music Muster’.

Guidelines for the DCP previously prohibited grants from being used on “staging events, exhibiting a display or for filming”, but this was dropped from the most recent guidelines.

Under the new broad guidelines of the program, which provides up to $1m for each drought-affected community, councils must provide information about how projects are expected to lead to the employment of locals, and the “extent to which farmers and/or farm labourers/staff/contractors are expected to be employed”.

If a project does not meet this criteria, it must show that projects provide either economic activity or “business retention” in a drought-affected community.

The guidelines state that the funding cannot be used for “a council’s core or business-as-usual operations, which council rates and other government funding usually funds”.

Among the grants are many that appear to be routine maintenance and improvement works, including community hall upgrades, road maintenance and grading, and the installation of toilets in public areas.

The Murweh Shire secured $200,000 for the redevelopment of Augathella Aged Care Residence, which was for “structural renovations and bathroom upgrades to cater for those with disability”.

The Gwydir shire council spent $37,000 on a new toilet for the Warialda cemetery and more than $100,000 on fencing for the Warialda airstrip.

Winton council also received $220,000 for a virtual gym, which provided video teleconferencing equipment so remote teachers could lead group fitness classes, including Zumba, yoga, pilates and dance.

In a media release about the funding, the drought minister, David Littleproud, said the local community had endured extreme drought and severe flooding.

“While the locals are certainly feeling the strain from such a wet event, I hope that down the track, when things settle down, they will be able to fully utilise the town’s virtual gym,” he said.

Littleproud told Guardian Australia that the government had asked communities affected by drought “what we could do to help them economically and emotionally”.

“They identified the funding that would best employ locals, bring money into their towns, give emotional support by bringing them together and leave a lasting legacy of hope for the future,” he said.

But the Labor MP Ed Husic questioned whether the grants should be going directly to farmers.

“At a time when farming families are seeing payments being stopped and others struggling to even get them from this government the general public will be stunned to think that drought aid isn’t going to these people, but is being used to support events like music festivals,” Husic said.

“I am sure those things have a place but the public would rightly expect the government to provide financial support to farmers who are actively thinking of leaving the land because of the drought.”

The government has been defending its drought response, with the prime minister, Scott Morrison, coming under fire from the broadcaster Alan Jones for not doing enough to support farmers.

Jones said the government was facing a backlash in the bush for not doing enough to ensure livestock was kept alive to help farmers survive the drought.

“They are sending the breeding stock to the sale yard to be slaughtered. They’re walking off their farms. They need cash now, now, just as we gave a billion dollars to Indonesia over a tsunami. This is a drought tsunami and they need cash to feed their breeding stock so they don’t have to sell. They can’t afford the feed, they can’t afford the water and they can’t afford the freight,” Jones said in a fiery interview on Tuesday.

In response, Morrison said the government was not able to make life “as it was before the drought”, but defended the Coalition’s response.

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“The government, whether it’s state, federal or anyone else, we can do a lot of things to help people try to get through this. But the government cannot make it rain,” Morrison said.

“We want the farmers and the communities to be able to get through this drought but we can’t kid ourselves that there is a magic wand and a magic cash splash that is going to make this thing totally solved.”

When Morrison spruiked the $115m spent through the Drought Communities Program, Jones said: “How does that feed a cow? PM, how does that feed a cow?”

In question time on Tuesday, Morrison was also asked to defend the amount of federal funding allocated to a recent dam announcement and the lack of money flowing directly to farmers from the Future Drought Fund.

Morrison said the drought fund, which accounts for $5bn of the government’s $7bn drought package, was not intended to provide direct financial assistance payment to farmers.

“It’s there to provide direct support for water resilience projects, to fund for the future,” he said.