The Australian parliament could hear from a long list of clubs who missed out under the controversial Community Sport Infrastructure Grant program as the Morrison government remains under fire due to the scheme.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Former Sport Minister Bridget McKenzie's resignation on Sunday did little to alleviate the pressure building over her apparent use of the $100 million grants program to sandbag Coalition electorate and target key Labor seats.
Labor says it has crossbench support to set up an inquiry into the use of the scheme, as detailed in a scathing report from the Auditor-General.
Leader Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday the inquiry could not only call the Auditor-General to give evidence, but also many of the clubs that failed to get a grant.
"Well, obviously, a place to start will be the Auditor-General. The dismissal by the government of the Auditor-General's report, that is very clear, in favour of a report by Scott Morrison's former chief of staff, who says, 'nothing to see here', and Scott Morrison's Attorney General, is quite frankly, farcical. And that is a good place to start," Mr Albanese said.
"I think another place to start will be, once the list is available of all of the clubs, to actually hear from some of the clubs about how it is that their applications were overlooked. We might actually have some witnesses might choose to try to come forward and ask to speak about the need for a National Integrity Commission so that these sorts of rorts can't happen into the future."
Labor tried and failed to get a motion up in the lower house to force the government to give grants to clubs that missed out under the program.
However both Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack have signalled there may be a future round of sporting grants after the scandal came to light.