The Community Sport Infrastructure Grant (CSIG) program was one of three new Commonwealth grant programs given to Sport Australia in 2018−19 to support Australians to get more active and to make sport as inclusive as possible.

In their report presented to the Parliament in January 2020, the Australian National Audit Office found that the award of grant funding for the CSIG 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 under published CSIG program guidelines. The Auditor-General cited serious concerns about the CSIG program's governance, including concerns about the minister’s legal authority to make grant decisions and evidence of a 'distribution bias' in the award of grant funding in advance of the 2019 federal election.

This report is presented in five chapters:

• Chapter 1 provides the rationale and context for the inquiry.
• Chapter 2 describes how grant decisions were made and the impact that had on the community.
• Chapter 3 examines shortcomings identified in the governance of the CSIG program, including outstanding questions regarding the minister’s legal authority to make grants.
• Chapter 4 describes the extent of political interference in the CSIG program and the role of the minister and the minister’s office in the decision-making process, and the involvement of the Prime Minister and his office.
• Chapter 5 describes the obstruction of evidence experienced by the committee in the course of this inquiry and makes concluding comments.