Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

And voters. The coalition were clearly favouring those seats that they thought they could keep or win. Our government grant programs should not be used in this way.

I was around—not in parliament at the time, but I was certainly involved in the conservation movement—during the previous sports rorts drama, in 1991, with then minister Ros Kelly. Having seen both of them, I know that this one is far beyond that, and what the government have done with the other grant programs is far beyond that. And you should have heard the then opposition carrying on about that program. Yet that pales into insignificance compared to what has happened here and what, it is now becoming apparent, has happened in other programs. It is an appalling way to treat this country, it's an appalling way to treat our democracy and, most importantly, it's an appalling way to treat all those sporting clubs that genuinely participated in this process, thinking that there was a level playing field—that they could get some of their playing fields fixed through the funding so that they could in fact play on a level playing field. What the government have done is reprehensible. It fails the pub test by a mile. They need to come clean. They need to table the report. Otherwise, from now to eternity, everybody will know that this government had something to hide—and it stinks to high heaven.