McKenzie quits cabinet over conflicts
BRIDGET McKenzie has resigned from cabinet after an investigation found she had two undeclared conflicts of interest relating to sports grants.
But Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stood by the way in which the former sports minister dealt with $100 million in community grants before the last election.
An auditor-general report released on January 15 had two key criticisms of the Community Sport Infrastructure Program.
They were that the awarding of grant funding was “not informed by an appropriate asmost sessment process and sound advice” and that the successful applications “were not those that had been assessed as the meritorious in terms of the published program guidelines”.
An investigation by the Prime Minister’s own department boss, Phil Gaetjens, found there was a “statistically similar ratio” when comparing the rate of grant approvals to marginal seats to those of other seats.
Mr Gaetjens identified the need for greater transparency around ministerial discretion in grants, but not getting rid of such discretion.
In a finding which led to the minister’s resignation, Mr Gaetjens determined Senator McKenzie was a member of a gun club that received a $36,000 grant but had not properly declared it. There had also been an undeclared conflict of interest in terms of her membership of Field and Game Australia, which received grants in the Northern Territory and Warrnambool.
Mr Morrison said that where “deficiencies have been identified in transparency and documentation”, that would be remedied.
But he added that the government would now consider how the program might be extended in the May budget.
Senator McKenzie, who was agriculture minister and also resigned as deputy Nationals leader, said in a statement she was committed to staying on in parliament and fighting for rural and regional Australia.
“I acknowledge that my failure to declare my memberships in a timely manner constituted a breach of the Prime Minister’s ministerial standards,” she said.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said it was “about time” the minister resigned. “But this scandal is bigger than one minister, and we still need to get to the bottom of these tawdry sports rorts,” he said.
It is widely expected Queensland minister David Littleproud will take over as Nationals deputy leader.