Cooks River
Tributary in AustraliaWikipedia
97
MENTIONS
51
EPISODES
34
PODCASTS
Search complete. 97 mentions across 51 episodes found for "Cooks River".
Nov 5, 2026
Jessica WangGUEST
Originally, when this whole scandal broke and it was revealed that the Marathor Golf Club, which is in his electorate, received a $6 million grant, so taxpayer-funded grant, he said that it was for sewage issues.
Jessica WangGUEST
Now, there was a part of that in question time he repeatedly talked I said that it was for sewage issues, it was to stop the mucky water leaking into the Cooks River, that kind of thing.
speaker_14UNKNOWN
When it floods in Marrickville, raw sewage flows into the Cooks River.
speaker_14UNKNOWN
That is what the funding is for.
Jessica WangGUEST
When in actual fact, if you were to look at the original breakdown of the costs, it was always that it was actually for 5 million of the 6 million was always for the clubhouse renovation.
Luke BonaHOST
Because the sewage issue tells me, OK, that's an environmental issue that's going to affect everybody along the Cooks River downstream.
Luke BonaHOST
And that's a worthwhile thing fixing.
Luke BonaHOST
But if the majority of that grant went to the clubhouse and the grounds redevelopment, that's a different issue altogether.
Niall Edwards-FitzSimonsHOST
However, in the months since we covered this story last, a new force has emerged to challenge these understandings of who gets a say.
Niall Edwards-FitzSimonsHOST
A fully-fledged protest movement has coalesced around the group calling themselves Scrap or Stop the Cooks River AI Project.
Niall Edwards-FitzSimonsHOST
I'm down here at a playground on the river and I can see one of their ubiquitous yellow and red posters with a beautiful linocut design.
Niall Edwards-FitzSimonsHOST
This group have been holding speak outs, protests, distributing flyers and they're bringing together those in the community who want to have more of a say on what happens at this site.
Niall Edwards-FitzSimonsHOST
In this episode, we're heading along to one of the scrap protests and having a chat to some of the organisers, hearing some of the speeches.
Niall Edwards-FitzSimonsHOST
And we're also speaking to some local councillors who, despite having less input into these decisions than they'd like, have some very strong opinions about what should happen here.
Niall Edwards-FitzSimonsHOST
That's all coming up on this episode of Gulayari Cooks River Radio.
Niall Edwards-FitzSimonsHOST
I'm your host, Niall Edwards-Fitzheimens.
Luke GrantHOST
And look, it's a golf club, right? $6 million to improve a golf club.
Luke GrantHOST
When Albo first said it was about the sewerage, I, like probably many of you, thought, well, okay, you can't have sewerage flowing into the Cooks River.
Luke GrantHOST
Fair enough.
Luke GrantHOST
Something's got to be done.
17 MINS LATER
Dennis ShanahanGUEST
First of all, he said, no, I didn't know about the honouring membership.
Dennis ShanahanGUEST
It wasn't a conflict of interest anyway.
Dennis ShanahanGUEST
And it was all about stopping raw sewage from septic tanks flooding into the Cooks River.
Dennis ShanahanGUEST
So it was this great scheme to save the Cooks River in that part of Sydney, and it was really part of an environmental help, and it was helping everyone.
Dennis ShanahanGUEST
It wasn't a conflict of interest anyway.
Dennis ShanahanGUEST
And it was all about stopping raw sewage from septic tanks flooding into the Cooks River.
Dennis ShanahanGUEST
So it was this great scheme to save the Cooks River in that part of Sydney, and it was really part of an environmental help, and it was helping everyone.
Dennis ShanahanGUEST
Yeah.
Dennis ShanahanGUEST
Unfortunately, for the Prime Minister, in Senate estimates last week in the inquiries and on Monday, the department officials said no.
Chris SpyrouHOST
And then after like some revelations by the ABC and stuff, we found out that he was an honorary member of the club.
Chris SpyrouHOST
Those questions were put to him last month and he was like, raw sewage runs into... and I'm sure it's going to get a mention in the quiz because of the person we have on, raw sewage runs into the Cooks River, and that's why they've received this grant.
Chris SpyrouHOST
Then it came to light in Senate estimates.
Chris SpyrouHOST
The public servants who run this grants program is like, actually, the federal grant isn't going towards the sewage.
Claire KimballHOST
He said that the club had a septic tank.
Claire KimballHOST
And because it sits in the flood plains of that part of Sydney, when it floods, raw sewage went into the Cooks River and that was a problem.
Claire KimballHOST
And he said that's what the funding is for.
Claire KimballHOST
However, this week, Senate estimates...
Joe HildebrandGUEST
So I was banging on about how much I love the little golf course, but...
Joe HildebrandGUEST
The catch here is that every time it rains, every time there's a big rain, the Cooks River, which is this really sort of fudgy, filthy, formerly terribly industrially polluted river, but now it's been cleaned up a bit and people in the community have done a great job there.
Joe HildebrandGUEST
But it is still very, very brown.
Joe HildebrandGUEST
It is still home to a few shopping trolleys on the bed.
Jacqueline MaleyHOST
I've been to this club.
Jacqueline MaleyHOST
It's on a beautiful part of the Cooks River.
Jacqueline MaleyHOST
He has basically been accused of misleading parliament over it because he talked about this $6 million federal grant, which went through sort of no meritorious or no merit-based process at all.
Jacqueline MaleyHOST
And he basically said it was to do sewage works on the golf club.
Tim WilsonSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
We know that inflation has been rising consistently before a single bomb was dropped on Tehran and that's because of the government's active inflation agenda because it cannot control its spending addiction.
Anthony AlbaneseSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
When it floods in Marrickville, raw sewerage flows into the Cooks River.
Anthony AlbaneseSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
That is what the funding is for.
Sally SaraHOST
Did it include sewerage works or not sewerage works?
Jacqueline MaleyHOST
I've been to this club.
Jacqueline MaleyHOST
It's on a beautiful part of the Cooks River.
Jacqueline MaleyHOST
He has basically been accused of misleading parliament over it because he talked about this $6 million federal grant, which went through sort of no meritorious or no merit-based process at all.
Jacqueline MaleyHOST
And he basically said it was to do sewage works on the golf club.
41 more episodes mention Cooks River.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.