Scott Morrison defends sports grants and Bridget McKenzie

Scott Morrison defends deputy Nat leader Bridget McKenzie for her role in allocating $100m in community sports grants.

Minister for Agriculture Bridget McKenzie and Prime Minister Scott Morrison at Parliament House in Canberra.

Scott Morrison has defended a $100 million grants program which handed cash to sporting groups in marginal electorates and will continue to back embattled minister Bridget McKenzie.

The Prime Minister said he “continues to support” Senator McKenzie — who is under pressure to resign over the sports grants scheme — despite the Auditor-General accusing her office of showing “distribution bias.”

“I continue to support her and the reason I do is because she was delivering a program which has changed the future of local communities,” Mr Morrison told 3AW.

“It’s hard to draw that absolute conclusion (that she was pork-barrelling) when more Labor seats got funding … one of those seats was Anthony Albanese’s seat. I think he was pretty confident of holding onto his seat.”

"I continue to support the Minister" - Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP says Bridget McKenzie retains his support, amid calls for her resignation over the sports rort scandal. pic.twitter.com/FC6ltosJaR

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) January 19, 2020

Law firm Slater and Gordon is now considering legal action over the sports grant scheme in which Senator McKenzie overruled grant decisions made by Sports Australia.

Mr Morrison rubbished Slater and Gordon’s move but said he took the Auditor-General’s report “very seriously” and that Attorney-General Christian Porter is moving to address legal concerns raised in the report.

“Lawyers are always going to try and take opportunities from things. It’s fairly predictable,” Mr Morrison said.

The Deputy Nationals leader — who left the Sports Minister job after the election — has branded claims she was pork-barrelling marginal seats as “ridiculous” and refuses to step aside.

Mr Morrison also said the latest sports grants scandal could not be compared with the one that ended the career of Keating-era minister Ros Kelly as all the local sports group were eligible for the money, even if there was a separate assessment made by Senator McKenzie.

“The Auditor General found that there were no ineligible programs funded and the rules were followed,” Mr Morrison told ABC radio.

“The program was delivering much needed grants to build sporting facilities … the program of $100m was spent on ensuring that young girls don’t need to change in their parents’ cars or the back of the shed. They can have proper facilities.

“Every single one of them was an eligible project unlike what happened in the Ros Kelly affair and what happened under the previous government.”