The unofficial grant to the Australian World Orchestra was made just days before the former Minister for the Arts was replaced.

Just as the dust seemed to be settling on Senator George Brandis’s contentious tenure as Minister for the Arts, yet more controversy has arisen as it has emerged today that in his final days in charge of the arts portfolio the Senator discreetly handed $2.42 million to the Australian World Orchestra. The grant was made on September 17, three days after the Liberal Party leadership spill, which saw former Prime Minister Tony Abbott ousted, and three days before it was formally announced that Senator Mitch Fifield would replace Senator Brandis as the Minister for the Arts.

The furtive back-hander, one of a number grants Senator Brandis made to the AWO and other favoured organisations without following any official administrative or assessment process, will raise even more eyebrows as the former Arts Minister’s then policy adviser, Michael Napthali, was once on the board of the AWO. Napthali, who is currently the Cultural Advisor to Prime Minister Turnbull, resigned his position on the AWO board when he was appointed to Senator Brandis’s staff, and there is no specific suggestion that he...