Politics

The ‘Sports Rort’ Scandal Could See Barnaby Joyce Return As Deputy PM

Remember Barnaby Joyce? Well, he's back.

by Rachael Conaghan  3 February 2020
Barnaby Joyce

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A massive integrity scandal has forced the Nationals Deputy Leader to quit — so who better to look to than the king of integrity himself, Barnaby Joyce.

Of course, you’ll remember Barnaby Joyce for his greatest hits such as impregnating his staffer behind his wife’s back while campaigning for family values; trying to kill Johnny Depp’s dogs; climate change denial; and claiming to be struggling on a $211,000 salary.

His string of scandals cost Barnaby his job as Nationals leader two years ago, but tomorrow we could see him back as head honcho thanks to the scandal of his colleague Senator Bridget McKenzie.

McKenzie resisted weeks of pressure, but yesterday was forced to quit after the Prime Minister’s department found she breached ministerial standards over the sports rort saga.

In the end, it wasn’t the fact that she poured millions of dollars into electorates the government wanted to win in the election, or the fact she did so while ignoring more deserving communities — what sealed her fate was the fact that some of that money went to a gun club she belonged to.

Wait, Seriously, Barnaby Joyce Is Back?

Quite possibly.

Bridget was the deputy leader of the Nationals Party and the agricultural minister, and she had to step down from both positions last night after the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet handed down a report into her conduct.

Tomorrow the Nationals will have a meeting to discuss her replacement, but there’s every chance a spill will be called for both the deputy and the leader positions. If that happens, Barnaby Joyce has said he will challenge the current leader Michael McCormack for the top job.


You’ll remember Michael McCormack for such classics as blaming kids for the bushfire crisis, homophobic newspaper columns and claiming we don’t need to raise Newstart because people can simply move to another town to find a job.

McCormack is pretty keen to keep his job and says he’s the one who has the party’s support — tomorrow we’ll see if that’s true.

Back Up: What Is The Sports Rort Scandal?

The government used $100 million from a community sports program to pump money into seats they wanted to win in the election.

That’s not some wild accusation — that’s what Australia’s National Audit Office found when it looked into the program.

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The funding was supposed to go to worthy communities so more Australians would have access to quality sporting facilities. More than 2000 applications were submitted to Sport Australia, who ranked them based on how deserving they were.

That list was passed on to then-Sport Minister Bridget McKenzie, where it presumably sat gathering dust. Instead, McKenzie’s office put together their own biased list which focused on marginal seats the government wanted to win in the election.

A month before the election Sport Australia even complained that government interference was compromising its independence. It’s so blatant that it’s almost laughable, although McKenzie tried to deny it.

“If anything … there was a case of reverse pork barrelling going on,” she said when the scandal first broke.

A week after the scandal Scott Morrison asked his department to check whether she’d breached standards, because apparently these pretty damning findings weren’t clear enough.

Last night the report found that by giving funding to a gun club, and not declaring she was a member, McKenzie had a conflict of interest.

However, the PM’s department also disagreed with the independent report that spared the whole mess, saying it didn’t find evidence the grant allocation was “unduly influenced” by targeted electorates.

How Were Applications Chosen?

Sport Australia ranked each application by giving them a score out of 100. These were based on merit criteria, including inclusiveness and community participation.

Only those who scored more than 74 should have been awarded any funding.

However, the ABC revealed that in Bridget McKenzie’e office the list of applications was literally colour-coded based on which party held the electorate.

73% of the projects that ended up being approved were not on Sport Australia’s list.

So What Did Get Funded?

Out of more than 2000 applications, 684 were approved. These include:

  •  $35,980 for the Wangaratta Clay Target Club, a shooting club that Bridget was a member of. The independent seat was also being contested by the LNP.
  • $500,000 to the NT Field and Game Association, the gun club her former colleague Nigel Scullion is a member of.
  • $500,000 to the Mosman Rowing Club, in the seat that Tony Abbott ultimately failed to win.
  • $500,000 to the Old Collegians Rugby Union Club in Adelaide for female change rooms. The club has not had a women’s team since a sexism controversy in 2018, but it is in a marginal Coalition seat.
  • $500,000 to Pakenham Football Club, despite receiving a rating of only 50. It falls in the marginal La Trobe seat which was heavily targeted by Labor in the election.

Cool.

Was It All Bridget McKenzie’s Fault?

Look, people are finding it hard to believe that the Sports Minister cooked up this little scheme all by herself.

The Opposition sports spokesman Don Farrell said it was “inconceivable” that the PM’s office didn’t play a role, a claim that Scott Morrison has denied.

Not satisfied, on Wednesday Labor and the crossbench announced they will hold a senate inquiry into the whole mess.

In the meantime, McKenzie will remain a highly paid Senator.