General News
18 June, 2025
With cap in hand to get our money
Is there equity in the grant bid process, asks Miki Wilson MANY years ago, amongst my parents’ friends, there was one particular couple; he was a well-known theatre critic in Melbourne, and she was a career academic. My parents would host big...
Is there equity in the grantbid process, asks Miki Wilson
MANY years ago, amongst my parents’ friends, there was one particular couple; he was a well-known theatre critic in Melbourne, and she was a career academic.
My parents would host big Sunday lunches with lots of friends and wine involved and these friends would invariably be invited.
This couple where consummate users of government grants; they wrote books with grants; wrote plays with grants, wrote academic dissertations with grants; travelled on scholarships and generally had a highlife – quite often on other people’s dime.
At one of these such Sunday lunches the wife arrived with a bag of knitting, which she proceeded to do throughout the meal.
On being asked why she was knitting, she explained that she had quit smoking, and the knitting was helping her kick the habit – another quick-witted guest at the lunch asked ” Did you do it on a grant darling?” roars of laughter ensued.
I am often reminded of this today as apart from this couple I had never really come across the notion of grants, and the extensive dependence and reliance we have on them to fund things in our communities today.
The idea that we need to go cap in hand to government to ask for money (our money) that we have paid in tax seems strange.
To get a grant, we (the community or local government) need to fill in an application; provide a business case in many instances, justify the case, explain ourselves, provide costings, project deliverables and cost benefits and of course (as should be) the ultimate benefit to the community.
A big job – that then goes to an assessment team who may or may not read the application thoroughly, rank them against the other applications and their own criteria (which we may or may not know), maybe take into consideration where in the political scheme of things your community is placed (did I say pork barrelling) and choose one or some applications to get the grant money.
Good luck if you get the money – but what if you don’t? The community is let down, all the effort was wasted, expectations are dashed, and the project is delayed or even abandoned, it can be hard, and disappointing.
When did this dependence on government replace things like community fundraising? when did my special interest and desire for money mean I will go after your money? – because that is what its about.
My community’s special interest – let’s say, settling on Mars – could see us getting a grant that is made up of money from taxpayers in Western Australia whose special interest is something else – they in turn get grant money that is made up of our taxes.
Does this make sense? I’m really not sure – but I do worry that some communities have expert ‘grant winners’, while other communities do not – so they miss out.
Being competitive in life is fine, but there is always a loser – and then how does their community fair? I am not suggesting we don’t apply for grants – it’s how we fund most things in local government, but I can’t help thinking there is some inequity in the whole process.
Miki Wilson is the Loddon Shire’s Inglewood Ward councillor