Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

This is a government that continues to preside over corrupt programs—corrupt programs that use taxpayers' resources to derive personal political benefit for members of the Liberal and National parties. You have to consider how this started. The scene was set in 2018, when after knocking off Malcolm Turnbull this was a desperate government. This was a government driven by division, a government with no agenda but holding onto power. So they turned to looking at any single program they could use to throw money for political benefit, to derive any political gain they could have from taxpayers' money. We've seen some of the most egregious rorting this nation has ever witnessed. We've seen rorting of the $100 million Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program and the $150 million female facilities and water safety stream. We've seen rorting at Olympic scale and then we've seen them try to make Senator McKenzie the patsy, the fall guy for this, saying that she did it all, that she was entirely responsible for this rorting. But the truth is that we know there was a conspiracy led by the Prime Minister's office to corrupt this process for grubby political ends. We only have to look at the events of the last two days in question time to see that confirmed.

What are the details of sports rorts 1? We saw round 1, where 41 per cent of projects approved by the minister were not recommended by Sport Australia. The closer they got to the election, the more desperate they got; the more the Prime Minister tried to hold onto power by his fingernails. We saw 70 per cent of projects were rejected by Sport Australia. Round 3 was approved 17 minutes after we entered the caretaker period. Seventeen minutes after we entered the caretaker period, 73 projects were rejected by Sport Australia. It is not only that; we saw the ANAO decide the entire program is questionable in terms of its legality.

What sorts of projects were supported against Sport Australia's recommendations? What sorts of projects required the Prime Minister and the minister to say, 'We're going to support battlers. We're going to support battlers in struggling suburbs'? There was $50,000 for one of richest golf clubs in the country, Royal Adelaide, to install solar panels. I'm reliably informed that's about one annual membership. If they got one more member for the club, they could have paid for the solar panels themselves. There was $500,000 that went to the struggling Mosman Rowing Club—that bastion of battlers! The member opposite is from Wyong. I'm sure many members there go to Mosman rowers for a good row, maybe a chardonnay afterwards. And then there was $190,000 for another golf club to install facilities for wedding receptions. Wedding receptions! How is that advancing sports participation in this country? What it does advance is the naked political interests of those opposite. Then the most egregious—my favourite was $50,000 to the Sans Souci Football Club for a project not only already funded; it was already built and it was opened three days later by the council!

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