Former sports minister Bridget McKenzie has intervened in the political row over the $100 million sports grants funding affair to reject claims she backdated a key decision when the federal election was called last year.

In her first public statement in weeks, Senator McKenzie declared she had signed an official ministerial brief to allocate funding on April 4 last year and did not make any changes when the election was called one week later.

Senator Bridget McKenzie says changes made to a spreadsheet of sports grants were made without her approval. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The statement rejects one of Labor’s main accusations in heated Senate estimates hearings this week but raises new questions over the changes made to a colour-coded spreadsheet on April 11 when the government went into caretaker mode.

Senator McKenzie’s statement, made on her personal website on Thursday night, does not clarify whether the changes were made by the Prime Minister’s office or by her own ministerial advisers without her formal approval.