The grant was awarded to the council in June, through the Building Better Regions Fund, to help establish a creative precinct and bus exchange.

Pork-barrelling allegations were levelled against the government in response to the grant as the BBRF was aimed at supporting drought-affected communities.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Senator Whish-Wilson said questions still remain over how the council qualified for the grant and whether it had control of all the necessary land to be eligible.

"It looks like straight up pork-barrelling," he said.

"There is limited money to go around and there is people in need of that funding especially drought affected areas. These things need to be transparent and they need to be fair and equitable.

"The government and the Liberal party have made the decision to allocate the money to Bass, they have found a technicality and a loop hole in the drought funding and they've used that to get funds into Bass."

During Senate estimates this week Senator Whish-Wilson sought clarification on what data was provided to justify the council receiving grant funding.

In related news:

In order to be eligible for a BBRF grant applicants must proved they are in a drought-affected community. They must also show that the drought has affected employment in the region.

In response to a question on notice the Infrastructure Department said the council used data from 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial years.

A 20 month map of rainfall data across Tasmania shows a serious rainfall deficiency in parts of the North and East Coast of Tasmania between April 2018 and November 2019. Parts of the far North-East had severe rain deficiencies over that same time period.

BOM data also showed that between September 2019 and December 2019 Northern Tasmania experienced its lowest recorded rainfall on record.

City of Launceston mayor Albert van Zetten said the council met all the guideline requirements for the BBRF grants.

He said BOM data from the 20 months proceeding the council's application, in December 2019, clearly showed a severe rainfall deficiency across Northern Tasmania.

"The council can reaffirm that the funding will not be used for the proposed bus interchange, nor will it be used for providing a grant to a private developer," Cr van Zetten said.

A spokesperson for Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormick said all applications were assessed by the AusIndustry Business Grant Hub.

"This project was one of 163 funded through $207 million of available funding," the spokesperson said.

"This project demonstrated a direct benefit for a drought-affected location, a requirement under Section 2.1.2 of the guidelines. All projects funded under round four satisfied the eligibility criterion prescribed in the published guidelines."

What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor: