A report by the auditor-general found while Senator McKenzie was sports minister she awarded most of the grants to seats being targeted by the coalition during the election last year.

Labor has called for McKenzie to resign and pointed to their former sports minister Ros Kelly who stepped down from the ministry and then parliament in 1995 following a similar affair.

But Senator McKenzie is refusing to apologise and has the support of the prime minister who said no rules were broken despite allegations of ‘pork barrelling’ – funding sports clubs in marginal seats rather than on merit.

“What I’m doing is taking the auditor-general’s report seriously and clarifying the legal issues that were raised,”  Morrison told Nine’s Today show on Monday.

“Every project that was funded was eligible for funding. All the rules of the program were followed. The auditor-general found that – that’s different to what happened in the Ros Kelly affair.

“These projects were projects supporting local communities so girls didn’t have to get changed behind the shed or in their car to go play sport.

“It delivered funding supporting locally fund-raised initiatives in local communities, councils, to make local sports infrastructure better for communities.”

Leading law firm Slater and Gordon are investigating a class action, arguing tens of millions of dollars in grants were misappropriated.

-AAP

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