Scott Morrison backs Bridget McKenzie as outrage from sports grants continues

As the fury around the government’s sport grant program continues, an old tweet from former PM Tony Abbott has gone viral.

Scott Morrison has defended embattled deputy Nationals leader Bridget McKenzie for her role in allocating $100 million in community sports grants, as a tweet from former PM Tony Abbott goes viral for all the wrong reasons.

Senator McKenzie is facing calls to resign, with the opposition labelling her job as “untenable”, after an independent review found she awarded most of the grants to seats being targeted by the coalition during the election last year.

Senator McKenzie, now the Minister for Agriculture, was Sports Minister at the time.

“Every single one of the projects approved was eligible, every rule followed in relation to the program. The rules were followed. We are looking closely at the report,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Seven’s Sunrise this morning.

The PM has stood by Senator McKenzie. Picture: Marc Tewksbury/AAP

Asked by ABC’s AM this morning if Mr Morrison’s office was involved in the decision-making process, he said: “The decisions were done in accordance with the process the minister set out, and that was that the minister made those decisions and they were actioned in an endorsing way by Sports Australia. That’s how it worked.”

One project that’s specifically being eyed by critics was the $500,000 given to Mosman Rowing Club in late April, less than a month before the May 17 federal election.

Former PM Tony Abbott tweeted pictures of himself and Senator McKenzie handing over the $500,000, declaring the government was “helping the great sport of rowing across our country”.

It was wonderful to welcome @senbmckenzie to the Mosman Rowing Club down at the Spit. By investing $500,000 in the Mosman Rowing Club, we're helping the great sport of rowing across our country... pic.twitter.com/wBROWXUX9j

— Tony Abbott (@HonTonyAbbott) April 24, 2019

Mr Abbott would go on to lose his seat to independent Zali Steggall at the federal election.

While the tweet generated a whole lot of anger back in April, with people criticising money being given to the affluent suburb of Mosman, the sports grant saga has thrown it back into the spotlight.

well this is coming back to haunt @senbmckenzie

— robbie (@robbierocket7) January 17, 2020

I accept @Twitter doesn’t have an edit button, so understand your original tweet may have meant to have read “we're helping the great sport of RORTing across our country.” (but only in marginal @LiberalAus seats) Yes? @ScottMorrisonMP any comment? #auspol #AuspolSoCorrupt

— 💧Jason De Luca (@DeLuca_JD) January 17, 2020

Further south, in Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s Melbourne seat of Kooyong, eyebrows are also being raised.

Similar to Mr Abbott’s Sydney seat, the Hawthorn Malvern Hockey Club, in Mr Frydenberg’s electorate, received $500,000 to upgrade its pavilion, including new change rooms for women and a gymnasium.

The controversy has also been flagged by a leading law firm, which today confirmed it was investigating a class action over the federal government’s $100 million community sports scandal.

Slater and Gordon’s class actions practice group leader Andrew Baker said tens of millions of dollars in sporting club grants were awarded to clubs whose applications for funding would otherwise have been unsuccessful.

That’s because then sports minister, Deputy Nationals Leader Bridget McKenzie, applied her own decision-making criteria to overrule the merit-based assessments made by Sport Australia.

Mr Baker said that the clubs Sport Australia decided were worthy of funding but missed out may have rights to seek legal remedies.

“Every dollar that went to a club whose application should have been unsuccessful is a dollar that didn’t end up with a club that Sport Australia had identified and recommended for funding in the course of proper processes,” Mr Baker said in a statement yesterday.

“These community organisations, clubs and groups have lost out because it appears public funds were used for political gain.”

He said a thorough investigation by the Australian National Audit Office has stated that there was no legal authority evident to it which allowed the minister to approve the grants, rather than Sport Australia.

“This raises serious questions about the lawfulness of the conduct involved,” he said.

“In these circumstances, the clubs that have suffered because of any unlawful conduct may have rights to seek legal remedy.”

Mr Baker encouraged clubs who missed out on grants to contact Slater and Gordon.

Senator McKenzie is already under pressure to step down from the government frontbench with Labor, the Greens, One Nation and independent MP Zali Steggall having all backed a senate inquiry into the controversy.

— With AAP