Senator Bridget McKenzie’s return to Cabinet today reminds all Australians that Scott Morrison doesn’t punish misbehaviour, he rewards it.
Just 18 months ago, Senator McKenzie was forced to quit the front bench over the sports rorts saga, where she helped Scott Morrison funnel more than $100 million in taxpayer money into Liberal and National candidates’ election hopes.
The $100 million Community Sport Infrastructure Grants program was meant to provide grants based on the merit of thousands of applications against published criteria, as judged by Sport Australia.
Instead, the Auditor-General found the Morrison Government gave out grants with a focus on “marginal electorates held by the Coalition as well as those electorates held by other parties or independent members that were to be targeted by the Coalition at the 2019 Election”.
The Morrison Government snubbed projects with scores as high as 98 out of 100 on merit and instead pumped taxpayers’ money into projects in the seats it needed to win at the 2019 election.
Scott Morrison and Senator McKenzie’s offices exchanged at least 136 emails about their rort, including 15 different versions of the infamous colour-coded spreadsheet they used to pick winners based on politics.
Scott Morrison and Senator McKenzie weren’t content with just one massive rort.
In March 2019, they promised to invest $150 million more on female change rooms across the country so women and girls wouldn’t have to “get changed behind towels on the side of fields or in cars”.
But instead they spent more than $120 million of it on swimming pools in Liberal and National-held seats.
In 2019, it was clear that Scott Morrison and Senator McKenzie put politics ahead of people and did not deliver on what they announced.
Nothing has changed today.
They are not on your side. They are only in it for themselves.
For more information about Mr Morrison and Senator McKenzie’s Sports Rorts, visit https://notonyourside.org.au/sportsrorts