One of the saddest things about the way the Coalition government turned a $100 million sports fund into a political slush fund before the last election is that all around Australia hundreds of hard-working volunteers will be wondering why they bothered.

When the federal government announced two years ago the Community Sports Infrastructure Program these people took the time to read the guidelines and write detailed applications. They naturally thought that if they took extra care it might give them the best chance of securing the facilities their community needed.

The Australian National Audit Office, however, has now found that former Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie and her staff were wasting their time.

Her office largely ignored the recommendations of Sport Australia, the body that assessed the 2056 applications on merit. Instead, the minister set up a separate process which overruled the experts and in a case of “distributional bias” handed out more grants to projects in marginal seats the Coalition wanted to win or retain.

Senator McKenzie denies this and claims she was scrupulous to the point of “reverse pork-barrelling”. The ANAOs numbers, however, speak for themselves.