Attitude to Bridget McKenzie’s resignation and grant allocation

Q The Deputy Leader of the Nationals resigned last month for having a conflict of interest in awarding a grant to a shooting club of which she was a member. There are ongoing questions about the extent to which other ministers knew and participated in the allocation of regional sporting grants.

• 71% of participants agree that the investigation needs to continue to investigate any MP involved in the allocation of sports grants, which is no different to the Feb’20 results.
• On the other hand, now 43% of participants agree that the minister’s resignation should be the end of the matter (43%) down 6pts from Feb’20.

Attitude to Bridget McKenzie’s resignation and grant allocation

Q. The Deputy Leader of the Nationals has resigned for having a conflict of interest in awarding a grant to a shooting club of which she was a member. Which of the following statements do you agree with?

• 70% of participants agree that the investigation into the Deputy Nationals Leader needs to continue to investigate any MP involved in the allocation of sports grants. Half (49%) of participants agree that the minister’s resignation should be the end of the matter.
• Coalition voters are more likely to agree that the minister’s resignation should be the end of the matter (61%) than all other voters (44%).
• Additionally, Coalition voters are least likely to agree that the investigation needs to continue (65%) and giving grants to sports organisations in marginal seats was only done to influence the election result in the Governments favour (56%), than all other voters (76% and 74%).

Ministerial Conduct

Q. Over the past few weeks the Opposition has been raising concern about the conduct of Deputy Nationals leader Bridget McKenzie.

It is claimed she allocated $100million to sporting organisations in marginal seats to favour the Coalition in the 2019 Federal election.

Which of the following best describes your perspective on the issue?

•  One-third (34%) of participants have not been following the issue of Bridget McKenzie and the allocation of Sports grants.
• Half of participants believe the Prime Minister should have stood the Minister down from cabinet over the issue (51%), while just 15% believe Scott Morrison was correct to support his colleague.
• Coalition voters are least likely to say that the PM should have stood the Minister down (41%).