Department secretary pushing audit of grant to reef foundation

The Federal Government has been forced to fend off claims of fiscal recklessness in the first parliamentary sitting after the long winter break -- over a record grant to a small charity. Image: A diver at a shipwreck in the Great Barrier Reef (AAP)

And the Government's discomfort has extended outside the chamber, too, with Australia's top environment bureaucrat urging an official investigation into the $444 million grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

 The grant was announced as part of a plan to protect the reef.