PM personally approved $443m fund for tiny Barrier Reef foundation

Malcolm Turnbull was at the meeting where $443.8m in funding was offered to a small not-for-profit foundation without a competitive tender process or any application for the money, an inquiry has heard.

Josh Frydenberg and Malcolm Turnbull both attended a meeting
with a small not-for-profit foundation that was offered $443.8m
in funding without a tender.

Anna Marsden, the managing director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, told a Senate inquiry on Monday the organisation was offered the funding at a meeting in Sydney in April between Turnbull, environment and energy minister Josh Frydenberg, the foundation’s chair John Schubert and environment and energy department secretary John Pratt.

The inquiry is examining the process by which the foundation, which had just six full-time staff at the time, was awarded the funds and whether it has the capacity to deliver work required under the government’s reef 2050 plan.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox - “PM personally approved $443m fund for tiny Barrier Reef foundation.”