Bridget McKenzie attacks ‘ridiculous’ Labor claims on $100m grants
Nats deputy Bridget McKenzie defends ‘highly successful’ grants program amid calls for her to resign over $100m in handouts.
Nationals Deputy leader Bridget McKenzie continues to defend her conduct over $100m in sports grants amid Labor’s demand that she resign after a scathing auditor-general report.
In an explosive report, Auditor-General Grant Hehir found the former sports minister ignored recommendations by government agency Sport Australia on which applications to approve before last year’s election without apparent legal authority, favouring marginal and targeted seats.
Senator McKenzie on Thursday afternoon rubbished Labor’s call for her to resign.
“That is absolutely ridiculous,” Ms McKenzie said. “This is a highly successful program that’s delivering real benefits on the ground to community sporting clubs.”
The now-Agriculture Minister defended the successful applications, saying they were eligible to apply.
“No rules were broken,” Senator McKenzie said. “Every single one of those 684 projects that were funded was eligible for funding under the guidelines.
“I would have loved to have nearly $400 million to have funded every single eligible project across the country.”
Labor goes on the attack
Opposition frontbencher Tony Burke said he’d never seen an auditor-general’s report with such a finding, while deputy Labor leader Richard Marles called for an apology from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
“Scott Morrison was not making decisions about community sport, he was making decisions about saving the Liberal Party,” Mr Marles said.
“He owes an explanation to the hundreds of sporting clubs around Australia today about why he ignored their interests in favour of saving his own political skin. “Scott Morrison is not a prime minister for all Australians. He’s just a Liberal Party hack.” Independent MP for Warringah Zali Steggall said it shows Australia needs a national integrity commission with “real powers”.
The Greens are seeking support for a senate inquiry into the issue. Labor senator Don Farrell said the opposition would use “all of the processes available to us in parliament” to pursue the matter.
Handouts ‘favoured marginal seats’
Senator McKenzie refused to apologise after the auditor-general found she handed out $100m in sports grants before last year’s election without apparent legal authority, favouring marginal and targeted seats.
In an explosive report, the Auditor-General, Grant Hehir, said the former sports minister ignored recommendations by government agency Sport Australia on which applications to approve, conducting a parallel process within her office.
New performance audit report: Award of Funding under the Community Sport Infrastructure Program (@sportaustralia) https://t.co/GsIN9NrOIB pic.twitter.com/De1cRdIbQo
— Audit Office (ANAO) (@ANAO_Australia) January 15, 2020
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) said there was “distribution bias” in the awarding of 684 grants to grassroots sporting clubs that was “not consistent with the assessed merit of applications”.
• SMARTPHONE/TABLET USERS: Read the full ANAO report here.
“The award of funding reflected the approach documented by the minister’s office of focusing on ‘marginal’ electorates held by the Coalition as well as those electorates held by other parties or independent members that were to be ‘targeted’ by the Coalition at the 2019 election,” the ANAO said.
“Applications from projects located in those electorates were more successful in being awarded funding than if funding was allocated on the basis of merit assessed against the published program guidelines.”
But the former sports minister, who was in charge of approving the grants, told ABC Radio on Thursday she wouldn’t apologise over the pork-barrelling.
Asked whether she would apologise for how the $100 million was handled, the deputy Nationals leader said “Not at all”.
The now-Agriculture Minister defended the successful applications, saying they were eligible to apply.
“No rules were broken in this program,” Senator McKenzie told ABC radio. “The reality was there were many hundreds of meritorious projects that we just didn’t have the funding available for.”
The audit was sparked by Labor after Liberal candidate Georgina Downer doled out a $127,000 cheque for a local bowling club in South Australia as part of the program during the election campaign.
Echoes of Labor’s ‘sports rorts affair’
The damning assessment by the Auditor-General comes nearly 26 years after Labor sports minister Ros Kelly was forced to resign over the so-called “sports rorts affair” after she was unable to explain the distribution of sports grants to marginal electorates under a $30m scheme.
The report said government agency Sport Australia recognised in June 2018 that it, rather than the minister, was required to authorise the grants under the Australian Sports Commission Act.
The Department of Health identified the same month that legal advice was needed if the minister wanted to be the decision-maker, but no such advice was sought.
In the absence of such advice, “there was no legal authority evident to the ANAO under which the minister was able to be the approver” of the grants, the report said.
Labor sports spokesman Don Farrell said the report revealed taxpayers’ funds were used to pork-barrel key marginal seats ahead of the election, demanding Scott Morrison immediately stand down Senator McKenzie from the ministry.
“Failure to do so will prove that he does not believe his government is accountable to Australians,” Senator Farrell said.
“The Morrison government’s shameless politicisation of taxpayers’ money meant for community sports clubs is appalling, unacceptable and cannot go unpunished.”
Senator McKenzie, now the Minister for Agriculture, responded in a short statement saying the program had been “very popular”, and “all projects selected for funding were eligible to receive it”.
The audit followed a Labor complaint over a $127,373 grant in the seat of Mayo, announced by Liberal candidate Georgina Downer. Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus accused Ms Downer of “inappropriate” conduct after she, rather than independent MP Rebekha Sharkie, presented a large novelty cheque to Yankalilla Bowling Club.
Sport Australia received 2056 proposals from projects worth more than $396.6m under the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program, with applications closing in September 2018 — eight months before the election.
In the report, the Auditor-General said Sport Australia’s initial check weeded out non-compliant applications, ensuring no ineligible groups were awarded grants. It said the agency’s assessments were made largely in line with published criteria, but the minister’s office conducted its own process to determine which applications should receive funds.
“It was this assessment process that predominantly informed the minister’s funding decisions rather than Sport Australia’s process.
“Funding decisions for each of the three rounds were not informed by clear advice and not consistent with … guidelines.”
Sports Australia’s assessments were increasingly ignored by the minister as the election grew closer. In the first program round, 41 per cent of grants were not recommended by Sports Australia. In the second round, that had risen to 70 per cent, and by the third round had hit 73 per cent.
The ANAO also found sitting Coalition MPs were told which organisations had received grants up to two weeks before non-government MPs were told, and were provided with template media releases to announce projects in their electorates. It said that in Mayo, Ms Downer made arrangements on February 19 for an event with the Yankalilla club to announce its funding win, pipping Ms Sharkie, who was provided the applicant’s contact details the following day.
Sports Minister Richard Colbeck said the government would take action with Sport Australia to address the report’s findings.
“The government will continue to work with the board and senior management to implement the measures the agency is putting in place to strengthen future grant delivery,” he said.
The Rudd and Gillard governments also engaged in pork-barrelling through the former Regional Development Australia Fund, allocating millions to projects in Labor-held marginal seats.
Additional reporting: AAP
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