Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Cormann. The Prime Minister has claimed his office's only involvement in the sports rorts scheme was to pass along information. So why has the Audit Office told the Senate today there were 136 emails about the scheme going back and forth between the Prime Minister's office and Senator McKenzie's office in just six months?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Wong for that question. That is entirely consistent with the Prime Minister's statements.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, a supplementary question?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Auditor-General's responses today state that the colour-coded spreadsheet focusing on marginal and target seats, shared on four occasions with the Prime Minister's Office, input which applications should be awarded funding. Will the Prime Minister now admit his office was involved in the selection of winners?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What is very clear is that the Prime Minister, as he has said, and the Prime Minister's Office made representations in relation to specific projects, and the final decision-maker was the minister for sport. What I would also remind the chamber of is that, as a result of the minister making decisions to more fairly spread the grants geographically across sports, the proportion of projects going into Labor seats increased from 26 per cent to 135 per cent. The independent recommendations from Sport Australia, in the minister's judgement, would have inappropriately disadvantaged Labor electorates. So in exercising her discretion, making sure that all of the sports were appropriately supported and that the funding was allocated across— (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, is there a final supplementary question?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given that the Auditor-General's responses demonstrate the deep involvement of Mr Morrison and his office in the sports rorts program, can the minister explain why Mr Morrison continues to mislead Australians about his role and the role of his office in the sports rorts scandal?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I completely and utterly reject the premise of the question. The sports grants program is a highly successful, very popular program, which obviously, like many programs, must oversubscribe. The recommendations that came from Sport Australia were recommendations which, for good reason, the minister made decisions to adjust in order to ensure there was a fairer, better, more appropriate spread, including making sure that more projects in Labor electorates were supported than was initially recommended. The Prime Minister has been very clear in describing his involvement and his office's involvement, and we stand by the Prime Minister's statements.