Sports rorts: agency admits failing to tell Senate about second McKenzie email

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/04/new-email-puts-morrison-back-in-firing-line-over-sports-rorts

Sport Australia forced to correct record over second set of instructions from the former minister on the day Scott Morrison called election
Sport Australia has been forced to correct the record after failing to tell a Senate inquiry it received a second set of instructions from the former sport minister Bridget McKenzie on the day Scott Morrison called the 2019 election.

The agency that administered the controversial sports grants program acknowledged the error during a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday, and copped a blast from Labor for waiting several days before making the admission.

Officials also told the estimates committee they had met with the sports minister, Richard Colbeck, before giving evidence at Wednesday’s hearing, and Colbeck told the committee he had met with two of Morrison’s advisers on Tuesday night because it was “incumbent on me to understand the broader situation” before fronting an estimates hearing.

Labor seized on that evidence in question time, with the Labor frontbencher Pat Conroy asking Morrison whether he could confirm that his office was “coordinating a cover up”. The prime minister characterised that question as “desperate” and “feeble”.

Before Wednesday’s appearance at estimates, Sport Australia had previously given evidence that McKenzie sent the agency a signed brief, dated 4 April, and an attached list of successful grant recipients, at 8.46am on 11 April – the day the parliament was prorogued.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) – the agency that kicked off the sports rorts controversy by savaging the Coalition’s administration of the program – told a different story on Monday night.

The ANAO told an estimates hearing its records indicated that McKenzie’s office sent another email to Morrison’s office at 12.35pm on 11 April, with different grants. One project was deleted and another nine were added. At 12.43pm McKenzie’s office sent that material to Sports Australia.

Luke McCann, the chief operating officer at Sport Australia, acknowledged he was in error by failing to mention the second contact from McKenzie’s office on 11 April. He said a correction to the evidence was being prepared – although Colbeck, the responsible minister, said he didn’t regard the omission as “misleading the Senate”.

McCann was asked what explanation McKenzie’s office gave Sport Australia for sending a brief with two different lists attached during the caretaker period. McCann said the minister’s office told Sport Australia the second email was sent because there was an error with the first email.

“We were advised at 12.43pm that there were some errors in that brief and that this was the correct brief,” McCann told Wednesday’s hearing. “That was how it was characterised by the minister’s office.”

The chief operating officer indicated this had happened before, during the first round of grants under the program. The minister’s office had sent a brief with a list of approved grants and then subsequently amended the list. He said in that instance the minister’s office had again indicated there had been an error.

McCann said the changes between the first and the second email on 11 April added about $2.7m to the cost of the program.

The ANAO on Monday night told an estimates hearing McKenzie’s office maintained the spreadsheet of successful sports grants applications at all stages, but there were representations from Morrison’s office. Brian Boyd, the performance audit services group executive director, said not all the high level representations led to a change, but “sometimes they did”.

“For example, when I referred to one project coming out and one project coming in, in terms of the 8.46am version, that was at the request of the prime minister’s office,” Boyd said. “But of the changes made later that day, for the 12.43pm version, none were evident as being at the request of the prime minister’s office rather than the minister’s office making the changes.”

Labor says sports grants has become a trust issue for Morrison. Anthony Albanese told the ABC on Wednesday “the prime minister’s office has been in this up to the neck, and that is obvious for all to see”.

Albanese declared there was now a pattern of behaviour, from obfuscating over a family holiday in Hawaii to “the Brian Houston incident whereby for reasons beyond my comprehension, the prime minister said that was just gossip, and now a month later has confirmed that it’s a fact”.

“And on sports rorts, we have seen an attempt to cover this up.”

Morrison told parliament the government was taking the grants imbroglio “extremely seriously”.

“One side of the house is taking this matter very seriously and has taken the actions that are necessary, and the other side of the houses just engages in a desperate political smear campaign to prop up what is a very feeble leader of the Labor party,” the prime minister said.