Two of Scott Morrison’s senior staffers were involved in handling funding applications under the $100m community sports grants program and engaging with embattled Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie.
The revelation came as Nationals MPs said they did not expect Senator McKenzie to survive the scandal, even if she was cleared by an investigation led by Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Philip Gaetjens into her handling of the scheme, whether she breached ministerial standards and an alleged conflict of interest.
Sources have told The Weekend Australian that a senior adviser to the Prime Minister worked closely with party strategists and the Liberal Party secretariat before presenting the funding allocations under the grants program to Senator McKenzie’s office. The claim is contested by Mr Morrison, who has rejected suggestions that funding allocation decisions originated from within the office of the Prime Minister.
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A Labor-led Senate inquiry into the sports rorts affair, which has received crossbench support, will seek to investigate whether the Prime Minister’s office had any input in the final allocation of grants under the community sport infrastructure grants program. Opposition sports spokesman Don Farrell said it was “inconceivable” that the Prime Minister’s office did not play a more substantive role in the allocation of funds.
Senator McKenzie was on Friday finalising her submission to the Gaetjens review. She is arguing that the decision-making process for round-two grants took place before she received an “honorary membership” for the Wangaratta clay target club in Victoria. The club was given $35,980 during round two of the grants program. As the then sports minister, Senator McKenzie approved 232 round-two projects on February 5, according to an Australian National Audit Office report that triggered the saga.
The shooting club said on its website Senator McKenzie became a “full fee-paying member” on January 25, while sources close to the Agriculture Minister said the honorary membership took effect on January 29.
They claim she was not required to declare it as a gift on her register of senators’ interest because it was worth less than the $300 threshold.
Some Nationals MPs compared Senator McKenzie’s decision to dig in over the program to former leader Barnaby Joyce and former Speaker of the house Bronwyn Bishop refusing to go after they were embroiled in scandals involving, respectively, an affair with a staffer and $5000 helicopter ride. “If she gets off on a technicality, it’s going to be like Barnaby … It’s going to be something that will cause ongoing pain,” one Nationals MP said.
Another said: “Bronwyn Bishop dug in and it didn’t help (former prime minister) Tony Abbott. If it was me, I would have fallen on my sword. It’s going to have to be a resounding clearance by the Gaetjens inquiry.”
Senator Farrell said Senator McKenzie’s defence as to why she did not report the alleged conflict of interest “simply doesn’t wash … She had ample time to correct the record (and) make it clear she had a fundamental conflict of interest with her decision to give this grant to a sporting club of which she was a member.”
The scheme was found by the ANAO to be biased towards marginal seats and electorates targeted by the Coalition ahead of the May election. The Auditor-General also noted “representations” were made by MPs, including “through the Prime Minister’s office”.
The Weekend Australian has established that two senior staff within the PMO were involved in handling funding applications from MPs under the scheme.
Mr Morrison has strongly rejected suggestions he or his office was involved in making the final decision on project approvals. “The Prime Minister’s office has always relayed on representations made to it by its members,” he said on Monday. “That has been what every prime minister has always done in relation to any program. The minister (Senator McKenzie) was the one making the decisions.”
Senator Farrell said “there must have been communication between the minister’s office and the Prime Minister’s office.”
“As part of the Senate inquiry, we will be examining what that link was. We need to get to the bottom of this sad and sorry, tawdry story and we believe the inquiry we are planning to set up will be the body that does that.”
Senator Farrell said he had spoken with “a lot of the crossbench and the Greens” about a probe into the affair. “They are in agreement with us. It is my intention to proceed with the inquiry irrespective of whether the minister stands down or not. There are too many issues of accountability that need to be looked at or addressed,” he said.
Attorney-General Christian Porter is seeking advice from the Australian Government Solicitor. Mr Gaetjens is due to report back to Mr Morrison at the weekend or early next week.
Additional reporting: Rosie Lewis
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