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Sport grants rort "just stinks": Albanese

Colin BrinsdenAAP
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese want the Gaetjens report on sports rorts to be made public.
Camera IconOpposition Leader Anthony Albanese want the Gaetjens report on sports rorts to be made public.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says top bureaucrat Phil Gaetjens must show his independence in the sports grants scandal "that just stinks"

Mr Gaetjens, the secretary to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on Friday wrote to the Senate inquiry into the sports grants saga that toppled former sports minister Bridget McKenzie.

Mr Gaetjens report to cabinet remains under wraps, but he told the inquiry while there were some "significant shortcomings" with respect to the minister's decision making role, her office's separate approval processes were not unduly influenced by reference to "marginal" or "targeted" seats.

But Mr Albanese disagrees saying this "giant pork barrel" saw money being allocated with "politics being first, second and third priority".

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"Phil Gaetjens ... needs to not just be independent of the political interests of the government, he needs to be seen to be as well," Mr Albanese told reporters in Perth on Saturday.

"Which why Mr Gaetjens should himself, if the prime minister won't, make his report public."

He said Prime Minister Scott Mission on 16 occasions said all the grants are eligible, but the Senate inquiry heard this week from the Auditor General that 43 per cent weren't.

"This is a massive scandal," Mr Albanese said.

"This just stinks, everyone knows it does and it needs to be cleaned up and it can never ever happen again."

Liberal MP Tim Wilson defended the government's actions, saying the projects said to be ineligible were because of a "silly technicality".

The grants are not supposed to go to projects that are already built.

"They were awarded, they started building. Then by the time all the paperwork was signed off, they had commenced," Mr Wilson told ABC television.

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