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Anne Twomey

Why McKenzie's sports rorts defence is wrong

Australia's constitutional rulebook doesn't allow federal governments to splash money on local sports groups without parliamentary approval.

Anne TwomeyLaw professor

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Government pork-barrelling using sports grants is nothing new. Labor’s Ros Kelly made it an art-form in 1994, but at least had the sense to wipe the evidence off her great big whiteboard.

What is astonishing about the latest sports-rorts affair is its brazenness, culminating in the assertion that "no rules were broken". The public seems largely to have swallowed this heroic assertion. But is it true?

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    Original URL: https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/sports-rorts-breach-the-law-and-the-constitution-20200120-p53sxs