The Nationals have brushed off widening criticism of the controversial $100 million “sports rorts”, despite damning evidence that Scott Morrison’s office was involved in suggesting which projects should get handouts.
It came as embattled Nationals leader Michael McCormack joined rebel MP Llew O’Brien on the Sunshine Coast on Friday morning to open a new surf club.
The public display of unity also came as a handful of Nationals, led by former leader Barnaby Joyce, continue to agitate to overthrow Mr MrCormack.
Mr O’Brien quit the Nationals on Monday after leading a failed leadership coup. In more trouble for Mr McCormack, Mr O’Brien then got a surprise parliamentary promotion to deputy speaker on Tuesday after some Nationals MPs conspired to vote against the Coalition’s pick for the job.
Despite the internal strife, the Nationals have been keen to present a unified face this week, even as the fallout from the sports rorts program widens.
The most recent damning evidence was revealed – accidentally – by Coalition senator Eric Abetz, on Thursday at a Senate inquiry into the pre-election grants. In response to a question from senator Abetz, Australian National Audit Office executive director Brian Boyd said more than 40 per cent of projects funded under the scheme were ineligible for funding by the time agreements were signed.
That was mostly because many sporting clubs had started, or even finished, their projects before the government signed off on the funding.
Mr Boyd’s evidence demolished the government’s running claim that all of the projects it funded were eligible – even if they did not meet guidelines. On Friday, backbencher David Gillespie dismissed the apparently damning evidence.
“Look, that is a technicality,” Dr Gillespie told Sky News.
The Prime Minister has claimed at least 16 times that all of the projects funded under the scheme were eligible.
“The Auditor-General found that there were no ineligible projects,” he told Melbourne radio 3AW on January 20.
Other Coalition MPs and Senators have used the same defence as the sports rorts controversy has rolled on, despite claiming the scalp of front-bencher Bridget McKenzie.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said on Friday the evidence to the inquiry proved Mr Morrison was “loose with the truth”.
“Scott Morrison thinks that marketing and spin will solve every problem and that marketing is more important than telling the public the truth,” Mr Albanese said.
An explosive ANAO audit uncovered blatant political pork-barrelling in the program, with grants awarded by the Morrison government based on colour-coded electoral margins.
Officials at the Senate inquiry also confirmed that the Prime Minister’s Office made “direct” representations about which projects to fund and the Liberal Party submitted a wish-list of projects in the key marginal seat of Longman, which it hoped to snatch from Labor.
The inquiry has also heard there were at least 28 versions of the spreadsheet, detailing which groups would receive funding and the electorate they were located in.
The document was shared with Mr Morrison’s office and showed applications could swing from approved to denied within hours without explanation.
When asked after the hearing about his defence of the program, Mr Morrison said he was quoting the auditor-general’s report.
“I haven’t seen that [verbal] evidence, I haven’t seen that statement, so I will review that,” he said.
Senator McKenzie, then sports minister, had the final say on which projects were granted.
Auditor-General Grant Hehir told the inquiry the parallel process run by Senator McKenzie’s office alongside Sports Australia’s “was not informed by clear advice and was not consistent with the program guidelines”.
“Potential applicants and other stakeholders have a right to expect program funding decisions will be made in a manner and on a basis consistent with published program guidelines,” he said.
But Mr Hehir said there was no legal requirement for the minister to provide reasons why projects received funding.
Mr Morrison had his department head and former chief of staff, Philip Gaetjens, conduct a separate review that absolved the government of any wrongdoing.
Mr Gaetjens’ report has not been made public, although Senator McKenzie quit as agriculture minister over a technicality he revealed – that she had given money to a club she had not declared her membership of. But Mr Morrison said Mr Gaetjens found “no basis for the suggestion that political considerations were the primary determining factor”.
The committee wants Mr Gaetjens to explain how he reached his conclusion.
-with AAP
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