Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr President. I have never avoided answering those questions in those public forums ad nauseam, so I actually have nothing further to add to my public commentary, including answering that specific question during the Senate inquiry that Senator Chisholm chaired—he had over an hour to ask me any question he liked on that day—in addition to the 6,000-word public statement. So I am very comfortable with the management of that program. I am very comfortable with the exercise of ministerial discretion that saw more projects delivered to Labor seats than if I had not exercised my ministerial discretion. More clubs right around the country were able to avail themselves of a highly popular program that was oversubscribed by a factor of 13. Those programs were helping local clubs to increase physical activity right around the country in a whole raft of sports. I have publicly dealt with this through a whole raft of mechanisms that this chamber avails itself of to provide accountability and transparency to the public on the spending of public moneys. I stand by those public comments, and I have nothing further to add.