The environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has dismissed concerns about the Turnbull government’s decision to hand an unsolicited grant of $444m to a small Great Barrier Reef not-for-profit without a tender process.

He has also rejected claims that the grant process lacked transparency, saying the process complied with governance guidelines on grants and the Australian Audit Office would be able to follow how the money was being spent.

When asked if the Coalition would mind if a future Labor government handed $400m to an organisation without a tender process, Frydenberg said: “Well I tell you what, we would welcome that sort of commitment from the Labor party [to the Great Barrier Reef] because we never saw it when they were in office.”

The Turnbull government is facing pressure to explain why it awarded nearly half a billion dollars to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation during a private meeting in April between the foundation’s chairman, John Schubert, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Frydenberg.

The $443.8m grant was awarded without a competitive tender process or any application for the money, at a time when the foundation had just six full-time staff.

A parliamentary inquiry has been examining the process by which the grant was awarded, with Labor and the Greens pressing the government to explain what was said in the private meeting in April.

But Frydenberg has dismissed concerns about the grant process, saying the government did nothing wrong.

“Firstly, we have complied with the governance guidelines on grants,” he told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Thursday night.

“We have reached an extensive partnership agreement with the foundation which is public. The Australian Audit Office will be able to follow the money, and there will continue to be close cooperation between the foundation, the federal government, and the Queensland government.”

Asked if it was standard practice for the federal government to hand $400m to an organisation without any tender process or transparency, Frydenberg said the process had “a lot of transparency”.

“I really think that this is being raised as a distraction from the government’s achievement in investing in the reef, as opposed to anything else,” he said.

“This is the largest single investment via government in reef preservation and conservation and the only reason the Labor party is raising this is because they abandoned the reef when they were in office.

“There is a lot of transparency. There is a public agreement. As I said, the Audit Office will continue to be able to follow the money, you’ve got compliance with the governance guidelines, it’s an organisation which the Labor party contributed to, and it has some of Australia’s leading scientists and those who are involved in philanthropic organisations, so it’s a very reputable partner for the commonwealth.”

Frydenberg said his department had had more than 20 meetings with the Great Barrier Reef Foundation since April.