The Greens will refer the Environment Restoration Fund and the Communities Environment Program to the Auditor General for investigation, after The Saturday Paper reported today the $100m grants were used by the Coalition for pork-barrelling.

Greens Environment Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the Government's use of the funding looks and stinks like 'sports rorts'.

"A $100m grants program for environment restoration projects has reportedly been restricted to 25 preselected projects, most of them in key seats for the Coalition," she said.

The Government has today used its numbers in the lower house to narrowly avoid voting on a motion to pass the Greens’ bill for a national corruption watchdog with teeth.

“Today the Prime Minister has once again dodged scrutiny and integrity by gagging and delaying a vote on whether to have a strong federal corruption watchdog,” said Greens Senate Leader and democracy spokesperson, Senator Larissa Waters.

The Australian Senate has sent a message to the Morrison Government that it wants a federal corruption watchdog with teeth, voting for the Government to bring on the Greens’ National Integrity Commission Bill in the House of Representatives for a vote in the February 2020 sittings.

The Greens bill passed the Senate in September 2019.
 
Greens leader in the Senate Larissa Waters said,  “The Senate has today sent a clear message that it won’t stand for the weak Government model for a Federal ICAC which is already long delayed and ineffective.

The Greens have today written to the Auditor General asking for a full investigation of $150 million in sports funding channelled to Liberal-held marginal seats ahead of the election.

Greens Senator Leader Larissa Waters said, “This is yet another rorts scandal which has the Prime Minister’s fingerprints all over it.

“Memo to the Government - you can’t use public money to buy election outcomes! It’s called rorting and it’s a corruption of democracy.

The Greens were the first party to call for a national anticorruption body and have long advocated for a national integrity commission. In fact, the Greens' bills to establish a national integrity commission passed the Senate last September, and this government has stopped the bill from getting a vote in the House. We also led the way to the royal commissions into banking and aged care. We are absolutely opposed to this so-called ensuring integrity bill, which is nothing but an attack on workers and their unions. There is no integrity in this bill.

Crisis can bring about the best in people, and indeed it has brought out the best in our communities this summer. But sadly it has also brought out the worst in the Prime Minister of Australia. What we needed during this bushfire and climate disaster was courageous, truthful and wise leadership. What we got from the Prime Minister and this government was the exact opposite. They have been cowardly, dishonest and incompetent. Full of science deniers, they have behaved like a bunch of climate criminals, with 'Scotty from marketing' at their head.

The Senate today passed the Greens’ Order for the Production of Documents compelling the Prime Minister to release the Gaetjens Report and the Prime Minister office's emails where Bridget McKenzie may have been pressured over where the grant money should go.

The Senate today with Greens support also established an inquiry into the sports rorts scandal to get to the bottom of how decisions were made in the awarding to sports grants and the role of the Prime Ministers’ office.

The long-overdue resignation of the ministry by Bridget McKenzie leaves unanswered questions about the Sports Rorts scandal and does not address underlying integrity issues with the Morrison Government, according to the Greens.

Co-deputy leader and spokesperson on democracy Senator Larissa Waters and spokesperson on sport Senator Janet Rice said the Prime Minister will try and draw a line under this sports rorts scandal after Bridget McKenzie’s resignation but the announcement today does not stop the rot.

Quotes attributable to Senator Larissa Waters:

Data released in the ATO's Tax Transparency Report today showing that a third of our largest companies paid no corporate tax last year are proof that the system is rigged in favour of big corporations who make massive political donations, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

"We have two sets of rules in this country: one for big corporations who can afford to donate to Labor or the Liberals and another for the rest of us - and this report proves it," Di Natale said.

The epidemic of scandals involving Liberal parliamentarians continues with Liberal MP Gladys Liu linked to a donor at the centre of a money laundering probe by Australian authorities.

Greens co-deputy leader Larissa Waters said, “It’s time to end cash-for-access and get the influence of big money and dodgy donors out of politics.

“Prime Minister Morrison should stop the protection racket for Ms Liu and his embattled Ministers and stop the rot by capping political donations and election spending.