{"id":3350,"date":"2020-01-24T19:18:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T11:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=3350"},"modified":"2024-09-26T04:08:10","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T20:08:10","slug":"dream-me-up-scotty-the-australian-sports-rorts-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/dream-me-up-scotty-the-australian-sports-rorts-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Dream Me Up Scotty – The Australian Sports Rorts Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thread – Dream Me Up Scotty<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n

Jan 24th 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

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A timeline of the #sportsrorts<\/a><\/span> scandal.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

(Original Tweet unrolled<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

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One where we (@RonniSalt<\/a> <\/span>(With<\/span> @jommy_tee<\/a><\/span>)) try to cut through the mystery and the Public-Servant-Speak to get to the heart of the matter: that this was a collusion dreamed up at the very top levels of the Liberal party.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It was a brilliant scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

And like most brilliant schemes, it was a simple one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where it went wrong was where shady schemes like this always do \u2013 they tried to milk too much of a good thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

We begin in Aug\/Sept 2018 – but we could probably begin many years before that with the slow erosion of common values by this government.<\/span><\/p>\n

In early Sept 2018, a very successful Liberal party campaign operative by the name of Jonathan Hawkes arrived in Bridget McKenzie\u2019s office.<\/span><\/p>\n

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According to his extensive CV, this is the first time Mr Hawkes has involved himself with a fed National Party politician.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Mr Hawkes arrives from being a highly paid director of public affairs & a seasoned election campaigner, to being Senator McKenzie\u2019s – \u201cmedia advisor\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mr Hawke\u2019s arrival in McKenzie\u2019s office happily coincides with the launch of the Community Sport Infrastructure Grants program<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is lucky because Mr Hawkes, with his extensive networks into the Liberal Party itself & all their campaign strategists \u2013 will be able to help out<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The CSIG program launched in August 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Sports Australia website claims it was designed to \u201csupport greater community participation in sport\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it did indeed set out to fulfil that brief.<\/span><\/p>\n

But – it was also designed for something else. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Governments pork barrel all the time. They all do it, trying to curry favour with funding in strategic places.<\/span><\/p>\n

However by 2018, the electorate had become bored with large scale announcements \u2013 hospitals, schools, roads, bridges.<\/span><\/p>\n

It had all been done to death. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And the added problem with big announcements is that they attract bigger media outlets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Experienced, hard core political journalists tend to cover them for major newspapers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest, how many times has the Bellarine Times raced to cover a major airport rebuild? <\/span><\/p>\n

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But all the polling was showing an electorate that had tuned out of politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

How could the Lib Nat government curry favour with ordinary suburban and small town Australians?<\/span><\/p>\n

How could they butter up the electorate leading up to the next federal election? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The answer lay in talking to the grass roots.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who wanted to hear about a freeway by-pass?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why not hit the grass roots with something local and personal? Why not curry favour down on the ground?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why not pork barrel local sports clubs? <\/span><\/p>\n

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Everybody somewhere had a connection to a sports club or knew somebody who did. And it connected directly \u2013 right where they lived.<\/span><\/p>\n

The biggest attraction of this scheme was that it involved mainly small & local media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every little town & suburb in Australia would cover it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The advantage of that was that big, experienced political journalists wouldn\u2019t really pay it too much attention.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After all, why would the razor sharp Katherine Murphy pay attention to a small cheque to Surf Coast Shire Council?<\/span><\/p>\n

The fix was on. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The CSIG was well promoted.<\/span><\/p>\n

It had guidelines for applying & more importantly, it had tight *deadlines* for applying.<\/span><\/p>\n

It opened on Aug 4 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The cut off time was Sept 14 2018, so community sports groups had 6 weeks to research, write, refine & apply for their money. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What many of them did not know was that all their hard work would be for nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

From the Auditor General\u2019s investigation into the whole affair, we can conclude that ructions were there from the beginning between Sports Australia & people within Senator McKenzie\u2019s office. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It appears, although Sports Australia followed their own well developed criteria, forces inside Senator McKenzie\u2019s office had their own ideas about where all these grass roots grants were to be distributed.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the report shows \u2013 they weren\u2019t giving anyone their reasons either.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At the same time debates raged inside Senator McKenzie\u2019s office, Lib politicians were making noises to Andrew Hirst the Liberal Party president, about the polling in their seats.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you google who had strong competition or slim margins in the 2019 election \u2013 that would be them. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Media reports indicate Andrew Hirst informed the disgruntled politicians at the time that the matter was in hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who knows if Kathy Ganley was one of them, because she certainly wasn\u2019t an MP on Dec 8 2018 when she made this social media post.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In it, Ms Ganley talks about how fabulous Bridget McKenzie\u2019s visit has been & tells people to watch this space, particularly in relation to sporting clubs.<\/span><\/p>\n

What was Ms Ganley so very sure of regarding sporting clubs?<\/span><\/p>\n

The successful CSIG applicants were yet to be announced.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And yet here we are.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Like magic, 7 days after that mysterious post & only 3 days after the successful CSIG applicants were officially announced, here is the CLP candidate with a professionally produced flyer announcing $500K for her local sporting club.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prescient.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Next time: Round Two<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

#sportsrorts<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Addendum<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Feature image with the words “marginal” and “targeted” added<\/span><\/a><\/span>
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– Part 2 –
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Ronni Salt & Jommy Tee articles<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thread – Dream Me Up Scotty Jan 24th 2020   A timeline of the #sportsrorts scandal. (Original Tweet unrolled)   One where we (@RonniSalt (With @jommy_tee)) try to cut through the mystery and the Public-Servant-Speak to get to the heart of the matter: that this was a collusion dreamed up at the very top levels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,135,3],"tags":[242,226,245,243,160,244,241],"class_list":["post-3350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-by-ronni-salt-jommy-tee","category-australias-move-to-the-right","category-political-issues","tag-bridget-mckenzie","tag-corruption","tag-mr-hawke","tag-ms-ganley","tag-scott-morrison","tag-sports-australia","tag-sports-rorts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}