Extract from The Guardian
The former minister suggests she only became aware of the changes through the Senate estimates process this week. “The brief authorised approved projects for the third round this included nine new and emerging projects which, it must be emphasised, had been identified and sent to Sport Australia in March for assessment in line with program guidelines.”
Twomey, who believes the sports grants are unconstitutional and that McKenzie lacked legal authority to make them, said the latest revelation was “bizarre” because it was not clear who made the changes, if not McKenzie.
Twomey told Guardian Australia that even if McKenzie had legal authority, “[if] the minister wasn’t actually making the decision about which of those grants were approved because she made her decision on 4 April and somebody else – whether it be people in her office or whatever – made changes, that would be problematic from a legal point of view”.
“If you accept the Commonwealth’s view that the minister is the decision-maker: either the minister’s staff as her agents made decisions to approve things after [4 April], which means she made that decision … [or] if they are asserting someone else made the decision, and that it wasn’t legally her decision because they were not her agents, then these actions have been taken unlawfully.”
Twomey said McKenzie’s claims she did not make the changes showed the “enormous dysfunction” of the way the government had handled sports and other grants. She renewed her calls for the government to explain the basis of its claim McKenzie had authority to approve the grants.
Scott Morrison has sought to distance both himself and his office from the controversy, insisting that McKenzie was the sole decision maker and characterising the role of his office as passing on representations from MPs.
But the ANAO’s evidence disrupted that line of defence by identifying specific changes that were made at the request of the prime minister’s office.
Sport Australia, the agency administering the grants, was also forced to admit this week it had provided incomplete evidence to a Senate inquiry examining the imbroglio. The agency failed to tell the inquiry it had received a second set of instructions from McKenzie’s office on 11 April.
Sport Australia told estimates this week McKenzie’s office had told them two versions of the funding decision were sent to the agency by email on 11 April because of errors. “We were advised at 12.43pm that there were some errors in that brief and that this was the correct brief,” Luke McCann, the chief operating officer at Sport Australia, told Wednesday’s hearing. “That was how it was characterised by the minister’s office.”
Labor says the sports grants saga 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.”
Labor has also been pursuing questions about whether McKenzie made funding decisions after the government went into caretaker mode and backdated her ministerial brief to avoid a breach of the convention. McKenzie says in her statement she signed the brief in Canberra on 4 April.
Albanese declared this week there was now a disturbing 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 this week 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 House 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.
Former sports minister denies making changes during caretaker period as Scott Morrison continues to claim she was the sole decision maker
The former sports minister Bridget McKenzie has reignited the sports rorts controversy by insisting she made no changes to the brief and attachments outlining successful projects funded under the sports grants scheme after 4 April 2019.
In a statement on her website, the first public intervention since stepping down from the ministry, McKenzie says: “I did not make any changes or annotations to this brief or its attachments after 4 April 2019.
“My expectation was that the brief would be processed in a timely and appropriate manner. Nevertheless, changes were made and administrative errors occurred in processing the brief.”
McKenzie does not identify who made the changes. According to constitutional expert, Anne Twomey, the revelation raises the prospect that somebody else made late changes to grants without legal authority.
The Australian National Audit Office told Senate estimates this week the prime minister’s office had requested a last-minute change before the documents were sent to Sports Australia at 8.46am on 11 April, which was the day parliament was prorogued for the 2019 election. But another set of changes were made later that day.
“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,” Brian Boyd, the ANAO’s performance audit services group executive director, told estimates on Monday night.
“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.”
In her statement McKenzie suggests that any changes made after 4 April were done without her knowledge, but she accepts ultimate responsibility for the decisions. “I was the minister for sport and therefore ultimately and entirely responsible for funding decisions that were signed off under my name, including and regrettably, any changes that were made unbeknown to me.”In a statement on her website, the first public intervention since stepping down from the ministry, McKenzie says: “I did not make any changes or annotations to this brief or its attachments after 4 April 2019.
“My expectation was that the brief would be processed in a timely and appropriate manner. Nevertheless, changes were made and administrative errors occurred in processing the brief.”
McKenzie does not identify who made the changes. According to constitutional expert, Anne Twomey, the revelation raises the prospect that somebody else made late changes to grants without legal authority.
The Australian National Audit Office told Senate estimates this week the prime minister’s office had requested a last-minute change before the documents were sent to Sports Australia at 8.46am on 11 April, which was the day parliament was prorogued for the 2019 election. But another set of changes were made later that day.
“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,” Brian Boyd, the ANAO’s performance audit services group executive director, told estimates on Monday night.
“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.”
The former minister suggests she only became aware of the changes through the Senate estimates process this week. “The brief authorised approved projects for the third round this included nine new and emerging projects which, it must be emphasised, had been identified and sent to Sport Australia in March for assessment in line with program guidelines.”
Twomey, who believes the sports grants are unconstitutional and that McKenzie lacked legal authority to make them, said the latest revelation was “bizarre” because it was not clear who made the changes, if not McKenzie.
Twomey told Guardian Australia that even if McKenzie had legal authority, “[if] the minister wasn’t actually making the decision about which of those grants were approved because she made her decision on 4 April and somebody else – whether it be people in her office or whatever – made changes, that would be problematic from a legal point of view”.
“If you accept the Commonwealth’s view that the minister is the decision-maker: either the minister’s staff as her agents made decisions to approve things after [4 April], which means she made that decision … [or] if they are asserting someone else made the decision, and that it wasn’t legally her decision because they were not her agents, then these actions have been taken unlawfully.”
Twomey said McKenzie’s claims she did not make the changes showed the “enormous dysfunction” of the way the government had handled sports and other grants. She renewed her calls for the government to explain the basis of its claim McKenzie had authority to approve the grants.
Scott Morrison has sought to distance both himself and his office from the controversy, insisting that McKenzie was the sole decision maker and characterising the role of his office as passing on representations from MPs.
But the ANAO’s evidence disrupted that line of defence by identifying specific changes that were made at the request of the prime minister’s office.
Sport Australia, the agency administering the grants, was also forced to admit this week it had provided incomplete evidence to a Senate inquiry examining the imbroglio. The agency failed to tell the inquiry it had received a second set of instructions from McKenzie’s office on 11 April.
Sport Australia told estimates this week McKenzie’s office had told them two versions of the funding decision were sent to the agency by email on 11 April because of errors. “We were advised at 12.43pm that there were some errors in that brief and that this was the correct brief,” Luke McCann, the chief operating officer at Sport Australia, told Wednesday’s hearing. “That was how it was characterised by the minister’s office.”
Labor says the sports grants saga 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.”
Labor has also been pursuing questions about whether McKenzie made funding decisions after the government went into caretaker mode and backdated her ministerial brief to avoid a breach of the convention. McKenzie says in her statement she signed the brief in Canberra on 4 April.
Albanese declared this week there was now a disturbing 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 this week 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 House 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.
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