LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Senior government sources are insisting Bridget McKenzie won't be a minister when Parliament resumes next week but the bureaucrat charged with investigating the minister is yet to report back.

7.30's chief political correspondent is Laura Tingle.

Laura, what's the view in Canberra about Senator McKenzie's future?

LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well certainly Bridget McKenzie has made clear to her colleagues that she's not very happy at the moment.

She believes that the Prime Minister's office has sort of dropped her in it and that she has asserted to people that she believed that the Prime Minister's office had an overview and knowledge of what actually happened with the sports rorts affair and the grants that were given under it.

So the question becomes when you've got senior figures in the Government saying that she will not be there by the time Parliament comes back, does she resign or is she sacked?

Now that will largely depend, I think, on continuing conversations which basically make clear to Senator McKenzie that there is a recognition that there is a bit of blame to be shared here, even if we never hear that expressed publicly.

So it's still really unclear whether she will resign or whether she will be sacked but, as I said, the senior government sources I spoke to yesterday believe that she will be gone by the time Parliament returns.

LEIGH SALES: And if she does go, what are the implications for the National Party?

LAURA TINGLE: Well, the implications are very complicated and they largely revolve, I think, around whether she is sacked or whether she is allowed to fall graciously on her sword and is prepared to do that because that has implications for Michael McCormack, whether the Nationals believe that he will be seen to have just sort of rolled over to the Prime Minister's demands, rather than protecting his deputy.

That will have implications for how the fight for the deputy's position unfolds and possibly even Michael McCormack's position himself.

But people are sort of holding off really making big bids for the job until they see how Bridget McKenzie is handled over the next couple of days.

LEIGH SALES: Laura Tingle, thank you.

LAURA TINGLE: Thanks Leigh.