Sports rorts inquiry: ‘Surprise’ colour-coded grants document sparked late-night Sport Australia conference

Outgoing Health Department Secretary Glenys Beauchamp says she cannot recall calling a meeting to discuss a colour-coded spreadsheet of sports grants.

Former Sport Australia CEO Kate Palmer. Picture: Supplied

Former Sport Australia chief executive Kate Palmer has revealed her “surprise” at seeing ­colour-coded spreadsheets of sports grants drawn up by former minister Bridget McKenzie’s ­office, saying it sparked a late-night teleconference with top mandarins. 

The former sports chief’s comments were at odds with Health Department secretary Glenys Beauchamp, who could not recall the meeting and raised eyebrows when she revealed she had destroyed her personal notebooks.

Ms Palmer told a Senate ­inquiry on Friday that she had no knowledge of the colour-coded sheets before a staffer handed it to her at a Senate estimates hearing last April, days before the election was called.

“I was surprised when I saw it … the colour code (surprised me),” she told the inquiry. “A teleconference was held between myself, the chair of the board and the department secretary … to discuss that we had seen and received this spreadsheet.”

She also said while she thought there were risks with Senator ­McKenzie’s handling of the grant — which eventually cost the senator her cabinet post — Ms Palmer did not consider it a parallel process and understood that as minister, she had the right to consider other factors in her ultimate approvals.

Department of Health Secretary Glenys Beauchamp appears at a Senate inquiry into the sports rorts affair today. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison’s office has also been plunged deeper into the ongoing scandal after a Senate inquiry found there were more than 100 emails between Senator ­McKenzie’s office and the PMO about the grants.

At 8.46am on April 11 — the day the election was called — Senator McKenzie sent Sport Australia a brief approving funding for 228 community infrastructure projects.

Labor says the email and attached spreadsheet identifying the approved projects were sent 16 minutes too late because parliament had been prorogued and caretaker conventions had begun.

On Friday, the Prime Minister said he did not know why Senator McKenzie sent approvals after he had called an election. 

“I don’t run the email service of her office,” Mr Morrison told ABC News. “What she sought from me was approval to make announcements. So, I mean, she’d made the decisions.”

Ms Palmer told the Senate inquiry she had no knowledge of any direct or indirect involvement of the Prime Minister’s Office in the administration of the sport grants.

Ms Beauchamp said the teleconference with Ms Palmer and Sport Australia chair John Wylie last April was an “ad hoc” meeting. But in a move that perplexed Labor senators, Ms Beauchamp also revealed she had no personal notes on the meeting as she had destroyed her notebooks because Friday was her last day in the public service.

“As a private citizen, I should not have notebooks and things after midnight tonight,” she said.

“They’re just my scratchings that I provide down in a notebook of things I might have to follow up on, and just a reminder to me.”

Former public service commissioner John Lloyd said he found Ms Beauchamp’s decision to ­destroy her years of notes ­“surprising”.

“I don’t think it’s illegal but it is surprising,” Mr Lloyd said. “The purpose of keeping records like this is so you have a record … and can protect your own interests.”