Constitutional expert questions federal funding of sporting clubs as government faces scrutiny over grant programs

Not only is the federal government facing questions about how it chose to fund certain community projects last election, but now the legality of these types of schemes are under question.

Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey says the Commonwealth shouldn't be using money to pay for sporting club upgrades.

"The framers of the Constitution did not write the Constitution so that the Commonwealth Parliament could go around spending money on facilities at golf clubs or resurfacing football ovals," she said.

"That is not a federal responsibility".

Other government grant programs have come under fire too and Professor Twomey reckons if they landed in court, they'd be unconstitutional.

But she can't see a challenge happening anytime soon.

"This has been going on for an awfully long time. All sides of government do it and abuse the system and none of them have an interest in actually stopping this conduct," she said.

Hello and welcome to our federal politics live blog. It's great to have you join us here for the final sitting day of the week this Thursday morning.

I'm Josh Boscaini joining you live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready to bring you all of today's federal politics news.

A constitutional law expert says it's not the responsibility of the federal government to hand out money to sporting clubs, after the ABC revealed the PM held an undeclared honorary membership to a club which received a Commonwealth grant.

Meanwhile, Labor is set to introduce laws to parliament today to crack down on the illegal tobacco trade and target organised crime, distributors and retailers selling illegal cigarettes.

And we expect the federal government will unveil its gas reservation policy today. Earlier this year, Labor proposed forcing gas giants to save 20 per cent of their volumes for the Australian market.

Without further ado, let's get right into the day!