Bridget McKenzie sports rorts: $1m in grants rushed to shooting clubs

Bridget McKenzie signed off on $1m in grants for shooting clubs before ­receiving report.

Senator Bridget McKenzie has come under pressure over the sports funding scandal. Picture: Picture: Kym Smith

Embattled Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie signed off on about $1m in grants for shooting clubs before her ­department received the results of a $160,000 report into the economic and social benefits of shooting.

Senator McKenzie commissioned the report, which was polling respondents around the same time she became a member of a gun club embroiled in the sports rorts furore in February last year.

But the taxpayer-funded ­report was not delivered to the Department of Health until last September.

The report, by several consultancies, was inconclusive and it was “not possible to say” whether the sport’s participants had a greater level of wellbeing than the general population “because they engage in hunting and shooting, or for another reason”.

Opposition sports spokesman Don Farrell on Monday questioned the utility of the report commissioned by Senator ­McKenzie, which also produced a demographic insight into ­shooters, including their age, sex, a state breakdown and whether they lived in regional or metropolitan locations.

The sports rorts issue has dominated political debate over the past week, depriving the government of oxygen and threatening to distract from Scott Morrison’s scheduled address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.

Sky News revealed on Monday that a former staffer in Senator McKenzie’s office had been “silenced” after raising concerns in late 2018 about the way the government’s $100m community sport infrastructure program was being administered. The complaint was allegedly brushed aside.

The Prime Minister will be in Orange, NSW, today for the first meeting of the Drought and Flood Advisory Board chaired by former Liberal Party president Shane Stone and will meet with businesses and families affected by the drought.

Some government MPs believe that Senator McKenzie should resign to help bring the crisis over the sports rorts affair to an end, but the Nationals deputy leader, who has the backing of party leader Michael McCormack, used the long weekend to rally the support of colleagues.

Senator McKenzie has faced a barrage of criticism since ­Auditor-General Grant Hehir handed down an explosive report that found she ignored recommendations by government agency Sport Australia about which clubs’ grant applications to approve.

The report also cast doubt over whether she had the legal authority to make funding decisions under the grants program.

The pressure on Senator McKenzie was ratcheted up after it emerged she awarded $36,000 to the Wangaratta Clay Target Club in Victoria when she was a member. She failed to disclose the membership to parliament, sparking conflict-of-interest allegations from Labor.

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Philip Gaetjens is conducting an independent inquiry into Senator ­McKenzie’s handling of the ­program and his report is expected to be handed down within days. The findings have the potential to make Senator McKenzie’s position as deputy leader untenable.

Senator Farrell called for Senator McKenzie’s resignation on Monday over what he labelled “industrial-scale pork-barrelling”. He also said Mr Gaetjens’ investigation should include the allegation that a staffer for Senator McKenzie had been “silen­ced” after raising concerns with the then sport minister’s chief of staff.

The report on the economic and social benefits of shooting was based on an online survey completed by 16,576 hunters and shooters conducted between February 27 and March 22 last year. It found that if shooting and hunting were banned, the hypothetical cost to the economy would be $335m, or the equivalent of about 3300 full-time jobs. “The question is, why did Bridget McKenzie commission a survey solely on shooting and not on other sports?” Senator Farrell said.

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce stood by his colleague on Monday, declaring Senator McKenzie was so safe he had “been taking bets”. While she was having a “rough time”, she did not deserve to be sacked from the ministry. 

“She will keep her job. I have been taking bets with people. She will keep her job,” Mr Joyce said. “She has not broken the law, she has not done anything that would put her at odds with what her job is as a minister.

“She has made ministerial decisions, obviously people have every right to comment on that … This will be a rough time in her career, but she will see it through.”

Health Minister Greg Hunt also stuck by Senator McKenzie on Monday.

“I have no change in my position and I’ve previously expressed my confidence and that hasn’t changed,” the Liberal frontbencher told ABC radio.

“The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will do their assessment and that’s independent and that will be judged on its merits. And the Prime Minister has commissioned that so that will be assessed. Beyond that, I’ve made my point.”

Senator McKenzie told colleagues over the long weekend she believed she did nothing wrong.

Queensland Nationals MP Michelle Landry has also decided to publicly back Senator McKenzie.  “She has the support of the Nationals partyroom,” Ms Lan­dry said. “I don’t think anyone wants to make any changes. I believe that she will remain in that position. Bridget has said that she has done everything above board and she feels confident that she will get through this.”