Morrison Government accused of pork-barrelling with sports funding in pre-election cash splash
The government has been accused of pork-barrelling in key marginal seats, with auditors finding that a $100 million community sport grant was not always awarded on merit. And the minister who handled it has refused to apologise.
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Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie’s is resisting calls for her resignation following revelations she used a $100 million sports grant program to sandbag Coalition seats.
An independent audit found the Morrison Government used the program to pork barrel in marginal seats the Coalition was targeting in the 2019 election.
The Victorian Senator defended her role in the project, refusing to apologise and saying the suggestion she should resign was “absolutely ridiculous”.
“Right now, as a result of our investment, parents are watching their kids get active on a Saturday morning instead of going down to Bunnings and cooking sausages to earn money,” she said.
The Australian National Audit Office found the 2018-19 Community Sport Infrastructure program was biased towards Coalition seats and that 73 per cent of the projects funded in the month before the election was not recommended by Sport Australia.
Victorian projects were awarded the most money of all the states and territories in the 2018-19 Community Sport Infrastructure program, receiving more than $25 million across 176 projects.
The state was a problematic one for the Coalition in last year’s election with the Liberals finishing with just 12 of the 38 seats.
The audit office questioned the legal authority behind the minister’s involvement and found they ran a parallel assessment out of her office.
The office also found the design of the program was deficient in a number of areas.
Senator McKenzie said “no rules were broken” and she used discretionary powers given to her in the program’s guidelines.
Opposition sports spokesman Don Farrell compared the situation with the infamous 1993/1994 sports rorts affair, where Keating’s sports minister Ros Kelly was found to have distributed sports grants to marginal electorates.
Ms Kelly then resigned in the wake of the scandal after it was found she used a whiteboard in her office to decide which grants would be awarded the money.
“Bridget McKenzie should do the same thing as Ros Kelly and resign,” Senator Farrell said.
“If she doesn’t, Scott Morrison should sack her.”
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Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles took aim at the Prime Minister for allowing the program to be used to pump money into marginal seats.
“Scott Morrison was not making decisions about community sport; he was making decisions about saving the Liberal Party,” he said.
The audit was prompted by a Labor complaint about a grant in the seat of Mayo, announced by Liberal candidate Georgina Downer instead of the local member Rebekha Sharkie.