Godwin Grech’s statement to The Australian — in a ripper of an exclusive by Paul Maley — needs to be considered carefully, particularly in regard to Malcolm Turnbull.
Remember that Grech has, on his own admission, both concocted an email and lied to a journalist in the past. He is also a man with extensive health problems, including mental health problems. There has been some commentary on Maley’s interview with Grech given the latter is “in a psych ward”. This shouldn’t be overplayed.
Grech is said to have voluntarily admitted himself to Canberra Hospital’s Psychiatric Unit at Woden and is suffering depression, which is not a great surprise.
But Grech knew the ANAO was releasing its report today, which includes a 34-page statement by Grech defending himself and attacking the Government over its lack of evidence-based policy. He has provided a shorter written statement to The Oz. The ANAO Report doesn’t address either the faked email or Grech’s contact with the Opposition. It appears Grech wanted to provide the full story rather than just the ANAO version.
The Australian’s political commentators have predictably used the revelations to suggest Malcolm Turnbull’s position is growing untenable. That newspaper has been gunning for Turnbull for quite some time. But significant parts of Grech’s story don’t stack up.
Grech claims he initiated contact with the Opposition in order to ensure the passage of the OzCar bill. That Grech thought this was even faintly appropriate shows just how out of touch with the most basic obligations of a public servant he was. That he thought that doing so by offering faked evidence that the Prime Minister had lied would ensure rapid passage of the bill suggests he had lost his judgement altogether. The Opposition couldn’t have cared less about OzCar, which they supported. They were only interested in scalps.
Grech also says that, unable to find the purported Charlton email — because, he suggests, a Treasury IT error deleted it from backup tapes — he thought it was a good idea not merely to make a record of the content of the email he believed he had received from the PMO, but to make it resemble an email itself. That’s certainly what you’d call an error of judgement. Making a file note describing his memory of a communication from the PMO would have been perfectly acceptable, even if his memory was faulty. But mocking it up into an email doesn’t fit any hypothesis except that he wanted to make mischief.
Grech portrays himself as the dupe of cunning politicians — Turnbull and Abetz pressured him into showing them the faked email, which they or Abetz adviser Brad Stansfield must have somehow copied and then shared with the press. At every stage Grech portrays himself as someone with good intentions — savings Australia’s car dealers — and trying to do so without support from his Department, which caused him to operate under pressure and make “misjudgements”.
But no one forced Grech to turn a file note into an email, or to travel to Sydney for a clandestine meeting with the Opposition, a meeting that he presumably did not disclose to his superiors, or even to hand over the faked email at that meeting, nor to speak to journalists on the say-so of the Leader of the Opposition.
In fact, Grech’s behaviour is that of a man who thinks he is a player. A man who perhaps got used to feeling important during the Howard years, and wanted to keep that feeling. A bloke who seems to enjoy big-noting himself and his proximity to power. In his lengthy and self-serving statement to the ANAO, he offers his own, uninvited take on the Government’s handling of the economic crisis.
“The normal policy disciplines had broken down… I was very uncomfortable preparing policy papers which contained options that had not been properly costed… I began to rely on a small network of 2 or 3 highly experienced former Treasury officers who I had known for the best part of 20 years…. I would therefore “roadtest” a few ideas and options with my small trusted network…”
Even now, Grech obviously feels there was nothing wrong with sharing the Government’s handling of the economic crisis — a matter of utmost national importance and with enormous potential for damage to economic and financial institutions if mishandled or if confidentiality was breached — with people outside the Public Service, so that he can look better in the eyes of the Treasurer and Prime Minister. There are real questions now about with whom Grech shared confidential information about the Government’s handling of the economic crisis and what those individuals did with that information.
Treasury’s advice to the ANAO also shows the much overworked Grech rejecting offers of assistance and “giving the impression that implementation was on track.” That might be self-serving on the part of Treasury, but its broader point — that as an SES Band 1, Grech knew the importance of having enough resources to handle a high-profile issue, is sound. Perhaps Grech didn’t like the idea of sharing responsibility. One wonders how well he delegated work to his EL2 and EL1 staff.
The idea that Malcolm Turnbull should fall on his sword on the basis of Grech’s statements is nonsensical. Grech in both his statement to The Australian and to the ANAO has not shed a great deal more objective light on what happened. But the fact that he is a deeply-troubled man is clearer than ever.
It was interesting to see Malcolm whining about his parents on oz story
whilst displaying total disregard for Grech.
The puff piece and the reality all in the one package.
On the other hand, Bernard, the ease with which he thew the unfortunate Godwin Grech to the wolves; together with the strutting little man’s sob story on Australian Story last night makes him to be not only cringe-worthy but able to tun on the emotion at will.
Worse, it reveals a man totally devoid of moral values.
If a man as flawed as Turnbull was to be applying for a job and in so doing revealed these little character zitzes, or flaws, would anyone wish to hire him? I doubt it. Why then should the Australian people have to be lumbered with yet another walking Greek tragedy? Or, in this case a walking Catholic tragedy might be a better analogy.
AS much of Grech’s statement does seem a bit “out there” and doesen’t form a coherent story. Inevitably you are forced to try and join the dots yourself as to what may have prompted these actions.
So here is my hypothesis:
1 Swan and or Charlton may have verbally mentioned to GG that they would like him to look into Grants case
2 GG breathlessly reports this to his handlers in the coalition who in turn report this to MT as the making of a scandal
3 MT and perhaps reckless Eric ask GG if he can supply any hard evidence. To which he alas says “no” he can only recall a conversation.
4 MT and co with blood in their nostrils having just taken out the minister for defence up the pressure on GG to come up with something.
5 They continue to up the pressure until GG desperate to please one of his masters decides to concoct the email but tells them they cant use it. Ha Ha thinks MT.
The rest is history, but I cant wait for the movie. Who will play Gordon? Geoffrey Rush perhaps?
It’s unbelievable that Turnbull and co didn’t pick up on Mr Grech’s situation. A nervous man, stepping well outside public service protocols who flies to Sydney to meet Turnbull and staff including Malcolm’s wife at her Sydney office. So desperate to give Malcolm the political credo he clearly lacks they all involved themselves in treacherous conduct. Malcolm isn’t a leader, he’s an opportunist. He’s another politician who needs public office more than we need him.
I agree totally with Bernard.
Godwin Grech is a real piece of work.
The contorted and convoluted explanation that he did this to save the bill clearly demonstrates a gulit-ridden, manipulative person trying desperately to cover his tracks. He reminds me of a gulity child caught with his hand in the cookie jar and trying so hard to cook up an outlandish explanation that he fails to see how foolish and ridiculous it is. Clearly someone who is off his rocker.
To suggest that a person of this nature was apparently so highly regarded in Treasury that he got to look after the whole OzCar deal makes me wonder how Treasury HR assesses performance. The other sad thing about Grech was that he apparently copied Secretary Ken Henry into all his tedious emails. That is so bizarre. Does Ken Henry simply tolerate daily streams of emails from inconsequential SES officials flooding his in-box…?
Godwin Grech was so out of touch leaking to Opposition members that he actually thought he was a player. The sad truth is having put out a lie about the email, he was subsequently forced into concocting it to maintain credibility with the Opposition and its desperate minders. Grech played to perfection the role of the tortured, conscience-ridden public servant in the Senate trying hard to make a point. We were all duped by this virtuoso performance which was unintentionally aided and abetted by a Treasury minder who looked to all intents and purposes like he was trying to heavy Grech from revealing too much.
The serious issue for Turnbull is the assertion by Grech that the Opposition Leader had instructed him to confidentially brief a journalist on the matter. Instructing a senior public servant to breach the rules of confidentiality that could potentially lead to his sacking is reprehensible. In that regard, if true, Turnbull has a case to answer – even if the information was false as Turnbull back then was obviously convinced of its veracity. However I have no sympathy for Grech – whatsoever.