Qld sport grant scandal: De Brenni did what community ’would expect me to do’

Queensland’s Sports Minister Mick de Brenni says he will not be resigning while insisting there was no political bias in his decision making in the wake of a damning Auditor-General’s report.

Palaszczuk Government Minister Mick de Brenni says he will not be resigning while insisting there was no political bias in his decision making in the wake of a damning Auditor-General’s report.

The Sports Minister said he had intervened on a “small number of occasions” because he had the “delegated authority” to make recommendations where his department had made mistakes.

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The Auditor-General found Mr de Brenni altered 33 sporting grants in two sports programs and hand-picked all 46 in a third without recording his reasoning.

“What the federal senator (Bridget McKenzie) did, she broke the rules, what I did, I made it fairer,” Mr de Brenni told reporters today, when asked about the comparison.

“I made some amendments back in early 2018 to ensure those mum and dad clubs where those parents fundraise at sausage sizzles, they don’t have big pokie revenues, got a fair go, that they got a shot at support where they hadn’t before and so that’s the clear difference.”

Mr de Brenni refused to reveal which recommended clubs by his department had been unsuccessful, and wouldn’t detail who the two successful clubs in his electorate were, citing privacy reasons.

“Of the 14 that weren’t successful in that round, nine of those have since been funded through other programs and the remaining five haven’t reapplied through any of our programs but we do encourage them to do so going forward,” he said.

Minister Sport Mick de Brenni is accused of pork-barrelling over the redistribution of sporting grants in the state. Photo: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“In respect to details of those clubs, I wanted to provide that advice through my correspondence to the Audit Office but for privacy reasons I’m advised that I can’t legally do that.

“I didn’t break the rules when I made those amendments and I’m not going to start breaking the rules now.”

Asked how taxpayers could have faith in the process when he did not record his reasonings for his decisions, the Minister instead referred to how his department had since improved its record keeping processes.

And he claimed it was not reasonable to “cherry pick” one program when pressed on the 32 changes he made to a Female Facilities Program, which the Auditor-General found had increased the number of grants for Labor electorates, insisting there was an equitable split across the state.

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