Sports rorts saga: Member for Mallee Anne Webster says Prime Minister's department report dispels pork-barrelling allegations

On Sunday, Victorian Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie resigned as agriculture minister, after the report confirmed she was a member of a gun club that received a $36,000 grant under the Community Sport Infrastructure Program but had not properly declared it.

"I think what the report has shown is ministers are held to a very high level of accountability - the people of Australia expect that - and her lack of timeliness in declaring her membership was the undoing," she said.

"He did not consider there was any rorting - so to speak, if I can use the term that has been used frequently - but rather that she acted within her due authority and responsibility as minister."

Dr Webster did not explicitly say whether she felt the government now had to win back the trust of community sports clubs and councils as a result of the scandal.

Sunday's developments followed an auditor-general's report on January 15, which concluded the allocation of funding to sports clubs under the program was "not informed by an appropriate assessment process and sound advice" and that the successful applications "were not those that had been assessed as the most meritorious in terms of the published program guidelines".

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That report suggested funding had disproportionately flowed to clubs in electorates the Liberal-National government hoped to win at the election, held in the months following the three rounds of the program.

However, the investigation by the prime minister's own department boss Phil Gaetjens found there was a "statistically similar ratio" when comparing the rate of grant approvals to marginal seats to those of other seats.

It later emerged projects in Nhill and Horsham were among those that missed out on funding under the program despite the applications scoring highly under Sport Australia's criteria.

Dr Webster said Mallee, one of Australia's safest electorates politically, did not miss out under the program.

"Hindmarsh, like Horsham, Red Cliffs, Mildura West and St Arnaud are all within Mallee. Mallee did get a distribution. We knew over 2000 people applied for the grants - and all of them had merit - there were some that were selected.

"It is always a disappointing outcome when you're not the one who has been selected. But the government has taken on the recommendations in the (auditor-general) report where the processing around the grants - including the advice being given to the minister - needs to be fine-tuned."

Dr Webster said she didn't think making Sport Australia's evaluation publicly available after grant applications would be "an appropriate mechanism to be aiming for".

"You would have to put that across all applications, and I don't think that's reasonable," she said. "The minister is given the responsibility to make decisions as an elected representative."

Dr Webster retained Mallee for the Nationals with a decreased majority at the May 18 poll, running against 12 other candidates. They are the only party to have held the seat for its 71-year history.

Senator McKenzie has also stepped down from the deputy leadership of the National Party in the wake of Sunday's report.

Dr Webster said discussions about filling this vacancy would be had at the Nationals' first party room meeting for the year on Tuesday.

She said she had not been approached by her colleagues seeking her support for their run at the deputy leadership, and would not comment further.

Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said in a statemen he will act as the Minister for Agriculture until a new Minister is appointed.