Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The club didn't have any female members—no joke, Senator Farrell.

The outcome in Tasmania, the state I represent, also illustrates how skewed these grants were. Seventy-five per cent of the $3.1 million in grants went to the marginal electorate of Bass, Braddon and Lyons. The safe Labor electorate of Franklin received a poultry $240,000. Sports clubs and councils across Australia deserve an apology, at a minimum, from this government, especially those which put time and resources into applications that should have, on merit, been funded but were overlooked for political reasons.

Even the Liberals' former opposition leader John Hewson believed that Senator McKenzie should've resigned from the ministry immediately following the release of the Auditor-General's report. In an opinion piece for The Age, Mr Hewson told the story of how in 1984 he hounded Labor sports minister Ros Kelly, resulting in her resignation. Here's what Mr Hewson had to say about the current scandal:

The sports rorts scandal involving the current Sport Minister, Bridget McKenzie, is worse.

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In Ros Kelly's case, at least, there was no doubt that she had the power to make the allocations of the sporting grants that she made.

There is serious doubt that McKenzie had such power. Sport Australia had been empowered by the Parliament to run the program, independent of government. It is now clear, from documents obtained by the ABC, that McKenzie ignored the pre-election warnings of Sport Australia that her interference was compromising its independence.

Mr Hewson also said in his column that he was staggered that it took Mr Morrison so long to deal with Senator McKenzie and that the scandal was 'an open-and-shut case of the abuse of her position for political gain'. Former New South Wales Auditor-General Tony Harris seems to agree. He said that if this issue had come across his desk, he would've passed it immediately to the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption.

Mr Morrison has absolved himself and anyone other than the former minister of responsibility, and it's the height of arrogance that Mr Morrison clears himself and his government and expects everyone else to drop the matter on the basis of a secret report—a secret report, mind you, that was prepared by the secretary of his department, who is also his former chief of staff. Even if we accept Mr Morrison's word about what Mr Gaetjens found, why should we accept his findings over those of the Auditor-General?

The finding in Mr Gaetjens's report that there was no evidence the allocation of grants was 'unduly influenced by reference to marginal targeted electorates' absolutely defies credibility. Does Mr Morrison really think that the Australian people accept that Senator McKenzie's only breach of ministerial standards was not declaring a conflict of interest in the Wangaratta Clay Target Club? Does he really think that you guys up in the gallery are that gullible?

Mr Morrison cannot brush aside the findings of the Auditor-General so easily, especially if he refuses to release the full report from his departmental secretary. The bottom line is that the program was used not to fund the sports but—as the member for Nichols, Mr Drum, candidly admitted—to improve the electoral performance of Liberal and Nationals members.

Now, there's a reason why Mr Morrison, of course, will not accept that there was any wrongdoing by Senator McKenzie in relation to the overall administration of these grants, and that's because his political survival depends on it—because, adhering to the same standards, he should also be shown the door. His office was also involved in these rorts. His grubby fingerprints are all over the crime scene, figuratively speaking, alongside Senator McKenzie's.

There are so many questions about this scandal that remain unanswered, which is why Labor will be moving to establish a select committee inquiry. Among other things, we need to find out more about the details of grant applications that were rated highly by Sport Australia but were rejected by the government in favour of political picks. We need to know the details of late applications that were considered by the government and how long after the due date for applications had passed that these late applications were entertained. We also need to find out who else was involved in the process of rorting these grants and how, including the— (Time expired)