Former sports minister denies making late changes to grants program

Former Federal Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie has denied making changes to the brief and attachments outlining successful projects funded under the controversial Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program after Parliament was prorogued prior to the last Federal election.

With the Senate inquiring into the allocations from the scheme, Senator McKenzie has contradicted Prime Minister Scott Morrison who continues to claim the former Sports Minister was the sole decision maker for the programs.

In a statement on her website, the first public intervention since stepping down from the Ministry, Senator McKenzie advises “I did not make any changes or annotations to this brief or its attachments after 4th April 2019.

“My expectation was that the brief would be processed in a timely and appropriate manner. Nevertheless, changes were made and administrative errors occurred in processing the brief.”

Senator McKenzie’s statement does not see her identify who made the changes.

As reported by Guardian Australia, constitutional expert Anne Twomey suggests that  the revelation raises the prospect that somebody else made late changes to grants without legal authority.

The Australian National Audit Office told Senate estimates this week that Prime Minister Morrison’s office had requested a last-minute change before the documents were sent to Sports Australia at 8.46am on 11th April, which was the day Parliament was prorogued for the 2019 election.

However, another set of changes were made later that day.

Brian Boyd, the ANAO’s Performance Audit Services Group Executive Director, told the Senate on Monday “for example, when I referred to one project coming out and one project coming in, in terms of the 8.46am version, that was at the request of the prime minister’s office.

“But of the changes made later that day, for the 12.43pm version, none were evident as being at the request of the prime minister’s office rather than the minister’s office making the changes.”

In her statement Senator McKenzie suggests that any changes made after 4th April were done without her knowledge.

Accepting s ultimate responsibility for the decisions, she added “I was the Minister for Sport and therefore ultimately and entirely responsible for funding decisions that were signed off under my name, including and regrettably, any changes that were made unbeknown to me.”

Senator McKenzie suggested that she only became aware of the changes through the Senate estimates process this week, adding “the brief authorised approved projects for the third round this included nine new and emerging projects which, it must be emphasised, had been identified and sent to Sport Australia in March for assessment in line with program guidelines.”

Twomey, who believes the sports grants are unconstitutional and that Senator McKenzie lacked legal authority to make them, said the latest revelation was “bizarre” because it was not clear who made the changes.

Prime Minister Morrison has sought to distance both himself and his office from the controversy, insisting that Senator McKenzie was the sole decision maker and characterising the role of his office as passing on representations from MPs.

Sport Australia, the agency administering the grants, was also forced to admit this week it had provided incomplete evidence to a Senate inquiry examining the imbroglio. The agency failed to tell the inquiry it had received a second set of instructions from Senator McKenzie’s office on 11th April.

Image: Senator Bridget McKenzie encourages young elite basketballers while Federal Sports Minister.