Weeks after a scathing audit report on the program, the Auditor-General shed new light on the contact between Mr Morrison's office and the ministerial staff who created a colour-coded spreadsheet to help decide grants. Labor has declared the scheme corrupt on the grounds the spreadsheet tracked applications according to their electorate and thereby used taxpayer funds to help the Coalition win seats at the last election, a claim the government denies. Mr Morrison has rejected claims his office ran the program, arguing Senator McKenzie was the decision-maker and responded to suggestions from his advisers. Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "All we did was provide information based on the representations made to us as every prime minister has always done," Mr Morrison said last month.

Australian National Audit Office official Brian Boyd also told a Senate hearing earlier this month the audit did not show that projects that came directly from the Prime Minister's office were more successful than those put to Senator McKenzie's office by members of Parliament. Challenged by Labor in Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Morrison cited a former grants scheme overseen by Mr Albanese to argue Labor had been worse. "The Leader of the Opposition is trying to throw mud when he sits in an absolute swamp," Mr Morrison said. "This rort knows no bounds," Anthony Albanese said. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen ANAO said there were 136 emails between the Prime Minister's office and Senator McKenzie's office about the program in the six months before 11 April last year, the day the writs were issued for the federal election and the government went into "caretaker" mode.

The emails involved two "key staff members" in Mr Morrison's office and three "key staff members" in Senator McKenzie's office. The details from ANAO counter some of the claims made about the program in a submission from Phil Gaetjens, the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Mr Morrison's former chief of staff. While Mr Gaetjens said he was told Senator McKenzie never saw the colour-coded spreadsheet, the ANAO revealed she had attached part of the document in correspondence with Mr Morrison. "On 10 April 2019 the minister wrote to the Prime Minister attaching printouts of two worksheets within the spreadsheet – the list of projects she intended to approve for round three funding and the worksheet with the summary tables (of distribution by state, political party and electorate)," the ANAO said. Senator McKenzie also signed a formal brief to Sport Australia on April 11 with a printout from the spreadsheet to make sure her decisions on the grants took priority over the independent agency.

Loading The first round of $28.3 million was announced in December 2018, the second round of $32.3 million was announced in March 2019 and the third round of $40 million was announced in April 2019, giving the government a boost at the May election. The ANAO has previously revealed there were 28 different versions of the colour-coded spreadsheet, raising questions over which version Mr Gaetjens relied upon in his report into the scheme last month. Mr Gaetjens said his analysis showed that political considerations were not the "primary determining factor" in Senator McKenzie's decision to approve grants. "There is persuasive data that backs up the conclusion that the minister's decisions to approve grants were not based on the adviser's spreadsheet," he said.