Bridget McKenzie proud of sport role

Bridget McKenzie says she’s proud of what the government achieved through the community sport grants program.

Senator Bridget McKenzie in the Senate chamber. Picture: Gary Ramage.

Former deputy Nationals leader Bridget McKenzie has defended her role in the so-called sports rorts saga that saw her step down from the frontbench, declaring she is proud of what the government achieved through the community sport grants program.

In her 20-page submission to a Senate inquiry into the scandal, Senator McKenzie said her oversight saw the taxpayer-funded grants distributed “more evenly” than shown under the methodology favoured by Auditor-General Grant Hehir in his scathing report of the program.

Senator McKenzie has rejected claims she had used a “marginal seat strategy” after Mr Hehir found she ignored recommendations by government agency Sport Australia on which applications to approve before the election, declaring his finding was based on a memo she had never seen.

“This former adviser’s memo was not used as a basis for my decisions at any stage in the process. The memo was never provided to me or seen by me,” she said.

“More significantly, there is no statistical case to support this narrative. Under my discretion, applications in seats classified in the former adviser’s memo as ‘marginal’ and ‘targeted’ were funded at a rate of 32 per cent.

“Applications not labelled as ‘marginal’ and ‘targeted’ seats were funded at a rate of 36 per cent.”

Senator McKenzie said that Sport Australia had recommended that 66 per cent of grants be awarded to electorates held by the Liberal and Nationals parties.

However, under her authority, this amount was reduced to 60 per cent.

“Additionally, my ministerial discretion resulted in more projects being funded in rural and regional Australia, an outcome I am particularly proud of.”

Senator McKenzie stepped down as deputy Nationals leader earlier this year after an investigation by Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Phil Gaetjens found she breached ministerial standards by failing to disclose her membership of a gun club that received almost $36,000 from the grants program.

In his explosive report that generated a political firestorm, Mr Hehir found the former sports minister favoured marginal and targeted seats when allocating the grant funding.

While Sport Australia’s initial check weeded out the non-­compliant applications, ensuring that no ineligible groups were awarded funds, the ANAO found Senator McKenzie’s office conducted a parallel assessment process to approve projects.

But Senator McKenzie poured cold water over the ANAO’s claims of a parallel ­process.

“The actions of my ministerial office and of Sport Australia were part of one and the same assessment process.”

Senator McKenzie said it was “problematic” for the ANAO to suggest she should have followed Sport Australia’s “flawed” rankings and recommendations.

She used her submission to argue she was never provided with a detailed overview of the projects nor a rationale for Sport Australia’s methodology.