The Coalition ignored Sport Australia recommendations and rejected at least 12 grants for female change rooms at local sport grounds, including one where women and girls are currently changing in tents.

Scott Morrison has repeatedly defended the sport grant program because of its focus on female participation in community sports, saying the government had directed funds to projects “because we didn’t want to see girls changing in cars or out the back of the sheds rather than having their own changing facilities”.

But documents seen by the Guardian show at least 12 applications for grants to build or upgrade female change rooms were rejected by then sports minister Bridget McKenzie, despite receiving excellent scores from Sport Australia, the body that assessed proposals against objective, independent criteria.

One of the rejected applications – a bid by the Cherry Gardens Ironbank Recreation Ground to build female-friendly change rooms – scored 94 out of 100, one of the highest scores in the nation.

The club said it was “incredibly frustrating and disappointing to all our volunteers and members to know our facility was adjudged to be deserving yet has not received funding”.

Another rejected application was made by the Brothers Rugby League Football Club Innisfail in Far North Queensland, which sought $295,500 to build female change rooms at Callendar Park, a ground shared by a range of sporting teams, schools, regional sports competitions, and Indigenous sporting carnivals.

The ground currently has nowhere for women and girls to get changed.

“They have to hunt the men out of their one, and go in there, or go in the gymnasium, or a toilet block in the netball court,” club vice-president Vince O’Brien told the Guardian.

“That’s where they would go. Or put a tent on the ground.”

The money was sorely needed in Innisfail, which sits in Bob Katter’s safe electorate of Kennedy. The local economy is struggling due to weak sugar prices, and the region has been hit by two major cyclones and a flood since 2006.

O’Brien said the grant would have given local builders some work and helped boost morale in the town. He hired a professional grant writer and surveyor to prepare the application, which he said “ticked all the boxes” of what the grant program aimed to achieve.

Sport Australia deemed it worthy of funding, scoring it 76 out of 100.

But the application was rejected twice, in rounds one and two of the program.

O’Brien said it has been deeply disappointing to since learn that his application had lost out to projects scored in the 50s or below.

Wealthier clubs like the members-only Royal Adelaide Golf Club, one of Australia’s most exclusive golf courses, the Mosman Rowing Club, and the Applecross Tennis Club, which boasts “million dollar views” of Perth’s Swan River, were successful.

Guardian Australia has also reported that the Old Collegians Rugby Club in the Coalition-held seat of Sturt received $500,000 for female change rooms despite its women’s team quitting because of a sexism row. The club’s application had a score of 60.5.

“It’s very disappointing,” O’Brien said. “You put your trust in these people. It cost us money to do the grant.”

“We’ve got no ladies facilities in terms of dressing rooms and these grounds are used every day of the week by schools, clubs, and for Indigenous sports carnivals.”

“It doesn’t build your trust too much in parliamentarians or governments.”

The club has since had a 2016 application for funding with the state government re-assessed, and won some money to build the change rooms. But the funding was based on old quotes and the club has now been left with a shortfall of at least $50,000, meaning the work is in jeopardy.

Labor’s shadow sports minister Don Farrell said that across Australia there had been grassroots clubs, including those wanting funds for female change rooms, that had been “cheated” by the grants process, with some of the highest-ranked but rejected applications focused on female participation.

“In seats not held or targeted by the Coalition and even in safe Coalition-held seats, grassroots sports clubs were cheated out of grants because the Morrison government used this program as its own personal pork-barrelling account,” Farrell said.

“Clubs that applied for grants to fund female change rooms and other projects supporting girls and women to play sport were snubbed.”

Fellow Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen accused the National party of “theft”, saying many worthy clubs that had “dreamt of change rooms for years” had missed out as a result.

“Now this is pure and simple political corruption of a process here by Bridget McKenzie. She should pay for that with her job,” Bowen said.

Labor will move to establish a Senate inquiry into the scheme when parliament returns next week.

Amid mounting calls for McKenzie to be dumped from cabinet, Morrison is waiting on the findings of an investigation being undertaken by the head of his department, Phil Gaetjens, into whether the Nationals MP breached ministerial standards.

Gaetjens, who is also Morrison’s former chief of staff, will look at McKenzie’s handling of the grants program, and whether she should have disclosed membership of a Wangaratta gun club that received a $36,000 grant.

On Thursday, home affairs minister Peter Dutton again defended McKenzie, saying he still strongly backed the embattled agriculture minister. But he also said there was a “process in place” to determine her fate.

“He [Morrison] is waiting on that advice back from the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Obviously he’s looked very closely at the recommendations made by the Auditor-General and I think that’s the right process. I think we should, again, leave some of the emotion to one side, look at the facts and make a decision on that basis,” Dutton said.