Attorney General defends Ministers' powers as more details emerge of sports grants allocations

Australian Attorney-General Christian Porter has defended the “broad power” of ministers to direct their departments as he awaits advice about whether the former Federal Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie had legal authority to overrule the advice of Sport Australia in awarding $100 million from the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program.

In an interview with Guardian Australia on Friday, the Attorney-General said he hoped to “finalise the process” of receiving advice from the Australian Government solicitor and advise Prime Minister Scott Morrison about Senator McKenzie’s authority.

Her said “ministers have a broad power that exists under the Westminster system with respect to their departments”.

Following the release on 15th January of a scathing report from the Australian National Audit Office, further details have emerged of which sports benefited most from the Program’s allocations, with cricket-related grants receiving the most money.

The Auditor-General's report noted "there was an undeclared and unmanaged conflict of interest involving a senior Sport Australia employee" with responsibilities for the program.

This unnamed employee, who has now left Sport Australia, is understood to have favoured a sport to which s/he was aligned, with grants data suggesting that was either AFL, cricket or rugby league.

Data reported by the ABC over recent days show these sports performed well when comparing recent Sport Australia participation numbers, although many larger grants benefited multiple sports.

The spreadsheet tags each application with one or more sports, delivering this leader board:

The largest tennis-only grant awarded was to Bellevue Heights Tennis Club infrastructure improvements, costing $373,000, in the Liberal marginal seat of Boothby in South Australia. Sport Australia gave this project a merit score 71.5 out of 100.

It's not clear why that project was funded instead of multi-sport projects like Hackham Football Club (scoring 74), the Barmera-Monash Football Club (76) or Woodville West Torrens Football Club (77) elsewhere in the state.

74 was identified by the Auditor-General as the score threshold that should have secured funding - if funding was awarded based on merit.

As reported by the ABC, a Sport Australia spokesperson said "we don't believe any single sport received an unfair advantage.

"The overwhelming majority of successful applications for the Community Sport Infrastructure grants were for multi-sport, multipurpose facilities, benefiting numerous participation sports and the local communities."

The largest tennis-only grant awarded was to Bellevue Heights Tennis Club infrastructure improvements, costing $373,000, in the Liberal marginal seat of Boothby in South Australia. Sport Australia gave this project a merit score 71.5 out of 100.

It's not clear why that project was funded instead of multi-sport projects like Hackham Football Club (scoring 74), the Barmera-Monash Football Club (76) or Woodville West Torrens Football Club (77) elsewhere in the state.

74 was identified by the Auditor-General as the score threshold that should have secured funding — if funding was awarded based on merit.

As reported by the ABC, a Sport Australia spokesperson said "we don't believe any single sport received an unfair advantage.

"The overwhelming majority of successful applications for the Community Sport Infrastructure grants were for multi-sport, multipurpose facilities, benefiting numerous participation sports and the local communities."

The ABC has also reported that law firms are looking to sign up clubs for class actions that would appeal the funding decisions in the courts and potentially challenge the Federal Government's constitutional power to allocate grants to benefit political interests.

However, there is still a chance of these projects receiving funding, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicated on Wednesday there were "many more worthy projects in this area" and pledged to work with the Treasurer to find more money.

Based on scores of approximately 2000 applications in the year-old spreadsheet, it would cost about $56 million to fund all unfunded projects with scores of 74 or more.

There are also growing frustrations that some sports might receive more favourable treatment than others.

Football Federation Australia board member Joseph Carrozzi tweeted in November that he wanted "a more equitable and participant based allocation" of Federal Government funding generally.

Images: Liberal candidate for Mayo Georgina Downer hands over a novelty cheque funding from the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program to the Yankalilla Bowling Club during the last Federal election campaign (top) and the Coolgardie Shire in Western Australia received $287,000 from the Grant Program for the refurbishment of the Kambalda Aquatic Facility despite earlier rejections of a larger submission (below).