@murpharoo It's pretty simple really Katherine, The Minister had no Lawful Authority to approve the grants. That was vested in Sport Australia under the the Australian Sports Commission Act 1989. On Page 19 of the Auditor general's report it says the following. ...
@murpharoo "there are no records evidencing that the Minister was
advised of the legal basis on which the Minister could undertake an approval role, and it is not
evident to the ANAO what the legal authority was.9 The design would also have been improved
had:" page 19/76 under programdesign
advised of the legal basis on which the Minister could undertake an approval role, and it is not
evident to the ANAO what the legal authority was.9 The design would also have been improved
had:" page 19/76 under programdesign
@murpharoo She may have been able to attain obtained that authority under Section 11 where she has the ability to give directions. But she didn't do that. So that is why it is allegedly illegal. But she didn't and wasn't advised of her legal Authority. So spinning the whole thing.....
@murpharoo and saying that "No rules were broken" is problematic. The person to advise on this is the Solicitor-General Who did have a degree of independence until George Brandis tried to cull his power with Guidance note 11 making it a Legal Direction. .....
@murpharoo The AG is a politician and should not give legal advice. IF this were handled by Sport Australia as their Act states and their guidelines also state (Booklet put out by them which has Elegibility criteria and also Seletion criteria (Sections 5 and 6 respectively) ......
@murpharoo then there would have been no colour coded spreadsheet of candidates for grants. it would all have been done at arms length and via the criteria put out by Sport Australia. Instead of the 684 Grants granted 419 were granted to Coalition seats, which is 61.26% and by value 61.58%.
@murpharoo Independents were granted 43 of the grants (6.29%) and by value 6.87%. The labor party were granted 223 grants (32.6%) and by value 31.54%. If the thing had been done on merit, one would expect an even distribution. NOT skewed towards Coalition and evenly across divisions as well
@murpharoo However certain seats such as Indi had an allocation of $1,682,621 and Corangamite had an allocation of $1,393,000 which are much higher than the average allocation per seat.(across all states). Wannon had an allocation of $1,700,000 which seams very high. .......
@murpharoo There is no doubt that this scheme was not withing the rules of Sport Australia (Commonwealth guidelines are different) and that the process was interfered with somewhere along the line. Bridget MCKenzie is the fall guy, but she was, I suspect, following orders. Who was her boss?
@murpharoo Some of these grants are fabulous when compared against the Sport Australia selection criteria. 1. Westonia Tennis Club, $49,500 has a population of 304 and 60 families, 2. Yerecoin Tennis Club, $15,000 has a population of 75 and 21 families, 3. Yuna Tennis club for $38,925 ...
@murpharoo Population 45 people and 11 families. All three would never have scored high in the selection criteria. sportaus.gov.au/grants_and_fun… Section 6.
@murpharoo All of the Population Stats are from the ABS Census data from 2016. ABS is a department of Treasury.
@murpharoo Read the Selection criteria in Section 6 and part 1 Participation being increased, you look at some of the Exclusive Rowing and Golf clubs and their Membership fees. In once case on the Gold Coast of over $1000 per annum and then wonder how can such a club score any points
@murpharoo This scheme and it's administration is fatally flawed for many reasons. This Government is out of control.
@murpharoo The Business of Ros Kelly is also a "look over there tactic" That was Sports rorts for $30M and done on a whiteboard. This was for $100M and done on a Spreadsheet, but also with no reasons given. They didn't follow Sport Australia guidelines either or Commonwealth guidelines...
@murpharoo I found another Auditor Generals report where the Commonwealth guidelines were introduced by Minchin in 2008 and codified by the Labor govt of Kevin Rudd in 2009. Those guidelines don't apply to Sport Australia because it's independent. McKenzies office didn't follow either.
