Why are you called fact hunter?...I'm not even a turnbull fan
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.
