McKenzie joined a gun club four days before approving grant funding

Embattled Senator Bridget McKenzie joined Wangaratta Clay Target Club as a member just four days before her office sent a list to Sport Australia recommending projects it wanted to share in the federal government's $100 million sport grants "slush fund".

A detailed timeline of the controversial Community Sport Infrastructure Program decision-making process has revealed Sport Australia, which oversaw the program, had finalised its list of priority projects on January 25, 2019 - the same day Senator McKenzie, then sport minister, visited the club.

Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie officially approved a grant for a shooting club just four days after becoming a member.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The federal Nationals deputy leader is standing firm amid pressure to quit over her handling over the alleged sports rort scandal as an inquiry probes whether or not she breached ministerial standards.

Evidence gathered during an audit of the scheme found just 20 minutes after Sport Australia lodged its recommendation with the Department of Health in January last year, it withdrew the list because Senator McKenzie's office had advised "there may be a late change to the submission".

On January 29, Senator McKenzie's office provided Sport Australia with a list of 236 projects it had identified for round two funding — with only 73 in common with the original merit-based selections.

The sport's body then revised its recommendations as a result, dumping 36 projects and adopting all but four of those Senator McKenzie's office had asked to be funded, approving them in early February. The Wangaratta club was on the list and received almost $36,000.

The so-called sports rorts scandal is poised to plague the Morrison government into a second week amid an ongoing review, which threatens to overshadow Prime Minister Scott Morrison's address to the National Press Club of Australia on Wednesday.

Mr Morrison is waiting for his department's secretary, Phil Gaetjens, to rule on whether Senator McKenzie breached ministerial standards by failing to declare in her register of interests her membership of the gun club, which received a $36,000 grant under the scheme.

Several sources told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald the review was now "highly unlikely" to be handed to Mr Morrison before Wednesday, meaning the saga could stretch beyond two weeks after a damning Auditor-General's report was released, revealing the fund was used to splash cash in marginal seats.

Senator McKenzie's office says the club membership, valued at $180, was a gift and she did not declare her membership on a public register because it was under the $300 threshold.

It also emerged on Monday that staff in Senator McKenzie's office had raised concerns at the time over the way the program was being handled but were told to do what the minister had asked.

Two sources, who declined to be named, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald their concerns were noted, but not acted on, with one saying it was "her way or the highway" when it came to approving projects.

They also played down speculation Senator McKenzie was acting on orders from the Prime Minister's Office or Coalition headquarters.

National Party colleagues, including former leader Barnaby Joyce, have pledged their support for Senator McKenzie, believing she should not lose her job as Agriculture Minister nor deputy leader.

Labor's legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus will use a speech in Melbourne on Tuesday to slam the "failure of probity" within the Morrison government's decision-making processes.

"The sports rorts affair unfolding over the last two weeks is a brazen, example of what I’m talking about," Mr Dreyfus will say.

"We have seen the assault on truth and accountability unfolding as Mr Morrison and his ministers initially responded to the scathing Auditor-General’s report by peddling facile half-truths or outright falsehoods like ‘every project funded was eligible’ or ‘all the rules were followed’."

"It says a lot about what the government thinks it can get away with that senior ministers repeated such brazenly misleading assertions in the face of the published report of the Auditor-General."