Baranduda Fields will have the support of Indi candidate Eric Kerr if Labor wins next month's election.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Even though the money came from the 2019-20 budget, it was not signed off before an election was called so its future depends on the elected government's support - whichever side that may be.
"It will be a big drawcard, it really will," Mr Kerr told The Border Mail.
"It's a fantastic project for the growth area of Wodonga, I do support funding it.
"I think if you do promise a community and you do promise clubs things, then you can't really renege, there has to be some kind of continuity long-term.
"I will be advocating that money is absolutely continued when we have a change of government."
In announcing the funding on Thursday, Senator Bridget McKenzie put the heat on Labor by saying "it would be a very brave future Labor government that took this off the table", but Mr Kerr hit back at the Coalition's failure to actually name Baranduda Fields in the budget handed down just two weeks earlier.
"It would be a brave Labor government to take the funding away, but it would be an even braver Liberal government to place it as a line item in the budget," he said.
"It's all politics."
Senator McKenzie also questioned where Mr Kerr was when she made Thursday's announcement, but he said she had not invited him to the event.
Mr Kerr and Nationals candidate Mark Byatt served as Wodonga councillor colleagues together when Baranduda Fields was part of the city's plans.
The Nationals this week lauded Mr Byatt as a champion of the project while he served as mayor, but Mr Kerr said that was not entirely true.
"No, it was (former mayor) Rod Wangman's baby and that's why as soon as he was off council, it dropped off the agenda," he said.
"Mark was a champion as much as any of us, there were seven of us on council."
He also questioned how much Wodonga ratepayers would end up paying in total for Baranduda Fields and what the immediate benefit would be before housing estates begin to be built in future years.
"It's good for the clubs, but also it's good for the developers whose land prices go up - that's a huge part of it," he said.
MORE FEDERAL ELECTION NEWS:
Receive our daily newsletter straight to your inbox each morning from The Border Mail. Sign up here