Extent of Morrison Government’s sports rorts affair revealed
A Senate select committee probing the controversial sports rorts affair that forced the resignation of sports minister Bridget McKenzie has heard almost half the projects funded in the program were ineligible.
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Almost half the projects funded in the Morrison Government’s controversial $100 million sports grants program were ineligible, a Senate inquiry has heard.
The revelation comes after the government had spent weeks defending the program on the basis all projects funded had been eligible.
A Senate select committee is investigating the so-called sports rorts affair which claimed the scalp of former sports minister Bridget McKenzie after the federal Auditor-General found she had ignored recommendations from Sport Australia and instead funnelled money into Coalition and targeted seats in the lead-up to last year’s election.
The Auditor-General found while the projects were eligible, they did not score highly against the Sport Australia criteria.
The government used that finding to defend the program on the basis all projects were eligible.
But on Thursday night, senior Audit Office official Brian Boyd told the committee 43 per cent of the projects selected by Senator McKenzie were, in fact, ineligible.
Mr Boyd said 294 projects initially deemed eligible by Sport Australia were ineligible by the time they were approved due to late or amended applications, or because works on the projects had begun.
“And there were 270 or something where the project had started before the funding agreement was in place, which is also ineligible under the program,’’ he said.
The committee also heard that “comfortably dozens’’ of emails containing at least 28 versions of a colour-coded spreadsheet were shared between the Prime Minister’s Office and Senator McKenzie’s office over the funding process.
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Senator McKenzie’s office colour-coded the sports clubs based on which party held the seat they were located in and whether the government was actively targeting the seat.
The inquiry heard Senator McKenzie had the chance to explain what had happened before the report was published but did not provide a response.
Mr Morrison last night said he had been “quoting the Auditor-General’’ when he said the projects were eligible.
“I will review it,’’ he said.
Originally published as Extent of Morrison Government’s sports rorts affair revealed