The stink, the septic system and the $6m question: Inside Albanese’s Marrickville mess

The Marrickville Golf Club was in a stink.

A new clientele of families and young revellers drawn to its coveted spot on the banks of the Cooks River had helped its bottom line, but the club’s ancient septic system was struggling to cope.

Repeated failures had led to sewage flowing onto the course, and potentially into the river itself.

As the NSW Department of Crown Lands diplomatically described it last year, the failure of the septic system had led to “discharged wastewater” which was “impacting golfers, recreational walkers and presenting an environmental risk” to the river.

For a club mindful of its place in the left-wing, environmentally conscious inner west – not to mention the olfactory senses of its golfers – it was a major issue. Though management had for years sought funding for various upgrades, it was desperate for a quick fix. So, the club reached out to Anthony Albanese’s office for help.

Sources close to the golf club familiar with the negotiations, speaking on the condition of anonymity so they could talk freely, told this masthead the club first went to the prime minister’s office seeking help after a redistribution moved it from the electorate of Barton to his seat of Grayndler before the last election.

In accounts which lend credibility to Albanese’s initial, incorrect claim about the $6 million grant, those sources said the early conversations were about fixing the club’s long-standing sewage problem.

Those conversations were not with Albanese himself, but members of his local electorate office. About the same time, club sources said, it asked others – including state MP Jo Haylen, the member for Summer Hill – for help too.

Haylen approached Steve Kamper, the NSW minister for Crown lands, who approved a $269,500 grant to connect the clubhouse to the mains sewer in September 2025.

Though it was a discretionary grant, the money, from a Crown Lands fund, was assessed by the department before it was approved and found to have met the assessment criteria for funding.

Since the scandal broke, colleagues have jokingly referred to the minister as “Kenny Kamper”, a reference to the 2006 Shane Jacobson mockumentary Kenny about a plumber.

While it remains unclear how exactly the request for a new sewerage system turned into a $6 million federal grant, Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said the club had been seeking funds for a renovation for several years.

“The club has been advocating for funding to renovate the clubhouse, which is essentially a fibro shack, for close to a decade,” Byrne, a long-time political ally of Albanese, told a Senate inquiry.

“When people say Royal Marrickville, that’s a joke because it’s such a working-class institution.”

The club has found itself at the centre of a political firestorm since controversy over the grant first emerged last month. Its general manager, Mathew Ward, declined to comment when approached.

However, this mastheadis aware the club and its staff have been subject to trolling online and in phone calls as a result of the grant furore.

Albanese has faced fierce criticism after admitting the $6 million grant was not designed to fund sewerage works. That admission came after bureaucrats contradicted his previous claims, revealing the money was earmarked for a series of other upgrades including a renovation of its clubhouse and a new pro shop.

Coalition senator James Paterson on Thursday said the prime minister’s repeated claims about the sewage issue exposed a lack of integrity in the government.

“Whenever you make a false statement, as soon as you become aware of it, you are obliged to go at the earliest opportunity to correct the record. He did not do so,” Paterson said. “In years gone by, this would have cost a minister their job. Under Albanese’s government, there are no standards at all.”

The $6 million grant included $4.55 million for upgrades to the clubhouse, $1 million for stormwater harvesting and another $500,000 for new “botanic plantings” and landscaping. That work has yet to begin.

Though the prime minister has sought to distance himself, the boost has been referred to by the club as the “Albanese upgrades” or “Albanese building works” in newsletters to members.

Nestled on the banks of the Cooks River, the club is an inner west institution that holds specific importance for the local Labor Party fraternity. In 2020, senior Labor figures, including Albanese, defeated a Greens-led proposal to reduce the course to nine holes. The campaign was seen as an important victory in an area that has threatened to drift towards the Greens in recent elections.

Unlike most golf clubs, Marrickville has long been a refuge for a largely working-class clientele. However, the club has increasingly gentrified along with the suburb of Marrickville. Additions, such as a new restaurant, have made it popular with a wider crowd.

The club held an information session with members last Tuesday, and has laid out plans for a refurbishment of the existing clubhouse interior, a new and upgraded bar area, an expanded deck and covered outdoor areas, new public toilets and additional “family friendly” outdoor space.

Those changes have sometimes irritated long-standing members. Some were angry when a putting green on the lawn of the clubhouse was turned into an outdoor eating area favoured by families, and its new popularity is not universally appreciated.

“Getting that money has destroyed the club,” Gerri Shaw, a member of 16 years, said on Thursday.

“I think the clubhouse needs some work, but now that it’s become what they call a community club on a weekend, this is packed out with young families and kids running riot … I don’t come near this place on a weekend any more.”

President of the club’s women’s golf committee Julie Granger said some members would have preferred to avoid such a large grant, and complained the renovation plans went beyond what members wanted.

“Some people have said that it was probably the death knell of the club. It needn’t have been, had it been used with the members in mind instead of the bistro,” Granger said.

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