Sports rorts in play as poll called

Despite Labor’s claims, the opposition does not have a smoking gun showing Scott Morrison misled parliament over the sports rorts saga. The scandal further evolved on Monday night when the Australian National Audit Office told Senate estimates that former sports minister Bridget ­McKenzie notified Sport Australia of new funding approvals as late as 12.43pm on April 11 last year, after the 2019 election had been called that morning. But at this stage it is not clear that the caretaker convention, which relates to major policy decisions, was broken.

ANAO executive director Brian Boyd told Senate estimates that Sport Australia received several versions of Senator McKenzie’s colour-coded sports grants spreadsheet the day the election was called. The final spreadsheet, in which “one project came out and further projects came in”, was sent to Sport Australia at 12.43pm. Shortly before, at 12.35pm, “it was sent from the minister’s office to the Prime Minister’s office”. The Pennant Hills AFL club, in the safe Liberal seat of Berowra in northern Sydney, was added after parliament entered caretaker mode. That was hardly an electoral bribe.

Nor is there anything to negate the Prime Minister’s insistence that Senator McKenzie ultimately approved projects. His office, he said, merely provided information to her office, based on representations made to it. Anthony Albanese’s claim that Mr Morrison’s role was “the most direct involvement of a prime minister in a scandal that I have seen” looks hollow.

Mr Boyd told Senate estimates the ANAO was aware of correspondence between the offices of Senator McKenzie and Mr Morrison about the sports grants program on messaging platforms beyond the 136 emails it accessed. The scandal claimed Senator McKenzie’s scalp. But so far, Labor has not justified its repeated claim that Mr Morrison has misled parliament and the public . Given major issues currently in play, such as the economy and the coronavirus outbreak, Labor should be careful about overplaying the sports rorts. Unless it finds something stronger than it has produced to date.