That Christian Porter thinks it’s appropriate to remain a cabinet minister in the absence of an independent inquiry into much-denied allegations of sexual assault is bad enough, but there can be no doubt he has now spat in the face of any Australian who thinks there should be basic level of transparency and integrity in government.
His declaration of being the beneficiary of an anonymous windfall for his legal costs in his withdrawn legal action against the ABC — where the story revealing allegations of rape by a cabinet minister remains up, intact — is an act of gross contempt for political integrity.
In a way, such arrogant behaviour by this privileged man-child has done us a favour in revealing just how piss weak federal standards of accountability are — standards fit for a tinpot dictatorship rather than a country that feels entitled to lecture others about democracy.
We know that politics in Australia is pervaded by soft corruption. We know that powerful corporate interests and super-rich individuals buy decisions and policies at the state and federal levels. Major areas of public policy in Australia are controlled by industries that buy outcomes and the politicians that create them: climate and energy policy, financial regulation, gambling regulation, property development.
The difference between the states and the Commonwealth is that most states have some measure of protection against blatant corruption. Most have better political donation disclosure laws. All have some form of genuine anti-corruption commission. Some like NSW and Queensland have meeting disclosure laws. NSW has banned property developers from donating to politicians and taken local government out of the property development approval process in Sydney.
But under the federal Coalition, not merely do the egregious faults of the Commonwealth’s few accountability and transparency laws go unremedied, we’re going backwards on transparency: freedom of information laws are ignored and treated with contempt, vast swathes of donor money are increasingly undisclosed, journalists and whistleblowers are prosecuted and harassed by police, and the government resists providing even basic information about the destination of tens of billions of dollars handed to the business sector.
And of course there remains no Commonwealth anti-corruption body — it’s now more than 1000 days since Porter and Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced they’d create one — even as the scandals and rorts pile up in the most corrupt government in federal history.
Now Porter sums the whole debacle up by treating us with utter contempt in relation to his parliamentary requirements for disclosure of interests. To whom does Porter, who remains a cabinet minister, owe a large debt? A media owner who would benefit from changes to media regulation? A fossil fuel company anxious to prevent climate action? A representative of the Chinese government eager to have ears inside cabinet? Organised crime?
And what do they want for their money? And when will they call in the debt? No one knows. Even Porter claims not to.
What a shabby banana republic the Commonwealth of Australia is.
He’s a security risk now. If he can’t explain his massive growth in wealth via the trust, his clearance should be removed ASAP.
He’s a pollie. They don’t get cleared. If that had to happen it’d be a tsunami of change!
He was the Attorney General and we don’t know how long that trust existed and by whom it was set up and from where the money came from or how much money is in it.
The Attorney general does sit on the security committee, and so does have access to sensitive information.
Of more concern, is that the product of his office/ work is still working its way through legislation processes and is meant to be debated. All of this needs to be scraped, prosecutions which he launched as “secret trials” all need to be scraped and costs and compensation paid.
If Christian Porter has been compromised by accepting money from an undisclosed trustee of a blind trust, Houston, I think our federal government has a major problem.
In the Porter context, is “trust fund” an oxymoron?
Once again we hear the argument that a politician’s actions are in compliance with requirements for accountability.
Is anyone fooled by politicians complying with requirements written (and policed) by politicians, for politicians?
How can voters be convinced that ethical behaviour – honesty – is a cornerstone of a parliamentary process?
Without it, parliament is a raucous gabfest where the loudest wins.
Malcolm Turnbull likens it to Porter receiving a bag of cash and not declaring it
Now there is a (bag)man who knows whereof he speaks.
I’m not sure whether ‘anyone [is or is not] fooled by politicians complying with requirements written (and policed) by politicians, for politicians’ but I am certain that most politicians count on either the electorate’s indifference or its short term memory failures (long term too). How else explain the return of this fossil-fooled and very dirty lot for three terms.
Agree, many watching wouldn’t vote for them anyway. Where the swinging votes count, there is a simplistic belief that the coalition looks after the economy and are a necessary evil. Morrison has refused to properly acknowledge the corruption of Angus Taylor et al. with the cynical knowledge that the public will forget to care and think all politicians are a bit on the nose anyway.
I think – sadly – that you’re right.
You ask”How low can they go?” Go to the new SBS doco on Julia Gillard and watch it all the way through. I would suggest that may help answer your question, especially the multi-layered heap of odure that constitutes “they”.
I suggest it needs to be watched in several sittings. I found it too difficult to continue watching after about 45 minutes. I was out of Australia during 2010-13 and missed some of the worst of the behaviour – which is revealed in all its horror in this documentary.
And you’re right – it does answer the question of the depths that can be plumbed. Bottomless!
Even the thoroughly toughened, unflappable Laura Tingle said that she had to keep ‘pausing’ viewing her advance copy to calm down – and she lived the reality of it, daily.
I thought I may be able to handle watching 45 minutes of it but didn’t even get to starting gate. I will watch it in very small bites. Extraordinary gutter performance by thugs and bullies that many Australians clearly recall. There was a Rhodes Scholar in there somewhere! I do wonder which school some of them went to. Money poorly spent by some parents and grandparents.
On the contrary, not poorly spent at all – as far as I can tell the whole point of an expensive private education is to produce arrogant super-confident well-connected sociopaths.
I went to one of those sort of schools, and I think you are giving them too much credit for producing ‘arrogant super-confident well-connected sociopaths’.
My experience says school falls third after parents (who they are – background, money, role, their attitudes, extent of family privilege expected) and then second: social context (who they mix with, social expectations of being the right sort of person and a deformed Australian version of class privilege).
Just about everyone who goes to a “Public School”, comes out damaged in some way…..
Stop trying to drag the “English” system into Australian society.
A “Public School” in Australia is just that, run by the state government.
I went to those schools and uni college. I am sure parents play a role but there is indeed something really wrong with the culture of those places. The further away I get from it the more I look back quite disturbed by it.
Got it! I too went to the female version of “those schools”.
We all could see, who was going to be one of those Man/Child entitled thugs and some of us were encouraged to not have anything to do with them.
Yep. But you left out ENTITLED.
Good word – sociopaths.
He’s every inch the turned-out “white Christian supremacist”.
Extremely wealthy, entitled white Christian supremacist with a very dodgy personal record and a career highlight of victimizing Witness K, Witness J and Bernard Colleary by running “secret trials” as payback.
Anytime anyone goes “that’s secret” or “I have no information on that” with a smirk always tells us that the lie is there in front.
For the persecution of Bernard Colleary and witness K, he in particular should be sacked and sent to jail. That’s before considering these of it
And talent, even competence is a rare bonus.
Please note that “that Rhodes scholar” was considered to be a third rate sportsman and a fourth rate scholar and “Dirty Dyson” was the professor of law who recommended him for his scholarship, I need say no more!
One of those periods in our history, that a lot of people will try and remember as something other than completely reprehensible. Scottie from marketing was in that ugly pack!
Yes indeed – watch in short bursts. Get a copy so one can pause and watch the spectators – whether in Parliament or out in the streets. Absolute hatred for Julia Gillard! The ugliest behaviour of the opposition, radio personalities and public. Will never forget LNP behaviour.
Never forget, never forgive. I hate thinking ill of people, but with grubs like Alan Jones, what can you do? I despise the bastard.
Better hurry to take a number & queue up – he’s not long for this world.
He quit SKY on medical advice a couple of months ago so let’s hope that it nothing trivial.
I always keep queued “The speech” on UTube, it warms my soul.
Yes, it was quite harrowing to watch – I did so last night. I had forgotten some of the more execrable moments – like Howard Sattler and the ABC’s “comedy show”. And all the liberal men talking over the women on Q&A, which the women in the audience watched shaking their heads. The LNP should be grateful that women just want equality and not revenge!
‘And all the liberal men talking over the women on Q&A,’ Sadly, one of them was a Labor man, talking to a liberal ‘man’.
The problem is that the Liberal Party sees equality as revenge. Lord knows what the Nationals see it as; perhaps a chance to sleep with the enemy.
Can you imagine the ABC featuring a comedy ‘At Home With Scotty’ depicting him on top of his partner? And yet the alleged ‘reds’ at the ABC put that embarrassing dreck to air when Gillard was PM. Perhaps not so red after all…?
The remarkable thing is that Gillard didn’t seek revenge by slashing their budget, that was the dirty work of Abbott (after promising not to).
And scottie from marketing, he also cut their budget, again and again.
There is no moral high ground for this sad excuse of a Government ( I say Government with tongue in cheek)
They put up a front of gaving Christian values when they try to hide there dishonesty, corruption, under handed dealings, immoral activities, lies and deceit.
This Government has no credibility, no fundemental belief in being honest along with total disregard for the high office of Government.
No other Party in power has ever done what this sad excuse of fools has done to the image of Politics, it has destroyed the credibility of Goveenment!
High ground? Never out of the swamp since 2013.
The swamp was created way before 2013. There would be slush funds galore for people like Porter set up specifically for situations like this.
That is what AGs are for; to get other team members out of the shit. There will be plenty backing him, they know the back doors through parliament; they built the place and wrote the rules.
What we are seeing are the bare bones of truth of federal politics and law set up way before this Government. This Government is full of smart arses who think they are playing stupid when they actually are stupid.
Barney was so pissed at Jack Sparrow for pinching the Federal Government’s character and lines. No joke. Now they all want to be Jack Sparrow.
It was. John Faulkner has a nice piece about Howard and how he had to junk his code of conduct in the end
A partial—very partial—list would include the massive pork-barrelling of the $1 billion Federation Fund program;
the scandal over the budget leak about MRI machines;
the development of a culture of assumption and denial in DIMIA while Mr Ruddock was minister for immigration, which the Comrie report called failed, catastrophic and dehumanised;
the wrongful and scandalous deportation of Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez Solon;
the wrongful and scandalous detention of Cornelia Rau at Baxter detention centre;
the utter incompetence of veterans’ affairs minister Danna Vale over roadworks at Anzac Cove;
the rorting of the $500 million Regional Partnerships program, with massively disproportionate grants being allocated to coalition seats –
not to mention the Tumbi Creek and Beaudesert Rail scandals under the same program;
support for the training of scab labour in Dubai to work on the waterfront;
and the use of dogs and security guards in balaclavas during the waterfront dispute, as waterside workers were sacked under the cover of darkness with the loss of all entitlements and, in some cases, personal possessions.
Howard introduced the GST after promising he never, ever would.
Howard government have sponsored many attacks on the independence of the judiciary and the courts, including repeated slurs by Senator Heffernan in this chamber and in Senate estimates.
They scrapped the free Commonwealth dental health scheme for low-income people.
They put back the cause of reconciliation irrevocably by refusing to say sorry to the stolen generations.
They blurred the line between church and state by the disastrous appointment of Archbishop Hollingworth as Governor-General of Australia.
Within days of coming to office the Howard government sacked six departmental secretaries and have since politicised the Public Service so that officials will never offer frank and fearless advice.
In fact, the government encouraged a culture where advice of any kind from a public servant is not welcome.
They increased government staffing of ministers and parliamentary secretaries from 293 when they came to office to 430 now, many paid above the salary range.
They cynically manipulated public sentiment about asylum seekers for political advantage.
They refused to sign the Kyoto protocol to deal with our greatest global environmental challenge: climate change.
They sponsored attacks from the former communications minister Richard Alston and from government backbenchers over alleged ABC bias while making partisan appointments to the ABC board.
They introduced draconian industrial legislation to strip away the hard-won rights of Australian workers.
They introduced the flawed Pacific solution, which has seen detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island remain open without any detainees.
There was the massive blow-out of $2 billion in the Commonwealth’s consultancies bill.
There was the complete fiasco of the family tax benefit debt trap, which has slugged millions of Australian families with over $1.5 billion in debts.
There is the fiasco of child-care shortages and the broken promise of the government on the child-care rebate.
And of course we have had the Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott, presiding over private health insurance premium hikes, which have totally absorbed the government rebate.
We have also had the plunge in bulk-billing rates and the breaking of the health minister’s promise not to increase the Medicare safety net threshold.
National Textiles, the company headed by the Prime Minister’s brother, Stan Howard, was bailed out by the government to the tune of $4 million;
the infamous Peter Reith telecard affair; the lies and deceit of ‘children overboard’; and then this nation being committed to war in Iraq on the basis of faulty intelligence about weapons of mass destruction while the government claimed that they were not aiming for regime change in Iraq.
But when the government’s claims about weapons of mass destruction proved false, of course regime change became the justification for the war in Iraq.
Never before has an Australian government sent our troops to war and lied to the Australian people about the reason for doing so.
We have had public servants and senior defence officers forced to take the blame over the government’s denials about their knowledge of the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.
We have had an unprecedented amount of public money splurged in advertising campaigns – as the Auditor-General has reported – to promote Liberal Party policies in the lead-up to the last three federal elections when the Howard government was in office.
We have even had the government write the name of the Federal Liberal Party into electoral legislation on 33 occasions to strip the Liberal state divisions of public funding. They even now use the parliament for their own dirty factional work.
Senator Hill’s appointment was the 18th former Liberal Party politician to be appointed by the Howard government to a plum diplomatic post.
Howard perverted the accepted definition of an election promise. He broke promises willy-nilly but just redefined those broken promises as ‘non-core’ promises.
What about the Nixonian leaking of a classified document to Andrew Bolt in order to politically assassinate its author, Andrew Wilkie, while not vetoing the leaker from contesting a Liberal Party preselection ballot?
We had the unprecedented gagging of public servants before estimates committees.
Howard himself, his senior minister, and his entire government have turned a blind eye to kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein’s regime to ensure wheat sales.
Faulkner:
At the same time, we had Howard self-righteously proclaiming that Saddam Hussein is a ‘loathsome dictator’.
They turned a blind eye to our single-desk wheat exporter, who practically became the banker of the Baath Party in Iraq. They turned a blind eye. Who knows where that money ended up? Who knows what it paid for? What we do know is that under the government’s own terrorist legislation, if someone acts recklessly and funds turn up in the hands of terrorists, the guilty party is subject to life imprisonment. You go to jail and they throw away the keys if you recklessly engage in an action under our terrorism laws where financial resources end up in the hands of a terrorist. Let us see what happens in relation to the Howard government, which has acted as Saddam Hussein’s banker.
What are the bywords of the Howard government? ‘I cannot recall,’ ‘I don’t recollect,’ ‘I wasn’t informed,’ ‘I can’t remember,’ ‘I have no recollection of that.’
Best of all, we had Trevor Flugge of AWB fame claiming, as his defence, that he is hard of hearing.
It seems to me the whole of this government is hard of hearing.
It is certainly deaf to the cries of conscience.
I’m loving you Lord of L. What a beautiful peace of factual writing covering time lines of political f…ups in our face.
Peice- – sorry automatic word problem.
Piece! arrgh!
Ha thanks don’t worry about peaces!
Cheers!
Agreed! Partial! You could write a very good book. I don’t like to read most Pollie’s bios. They’re only partial accounts of their wankerism. I’d read yours though!
Thank the Lord
One of those “I don’t recall” people is now advising the government regarding the Covid19 pandemic, very handy to have such a dicky memory.
Howard lost 8 Ministers
I doubt that even Oscar Wilde could construct an epigram for eight – he stopped at losing two parents being careless.
He did indeed and he had to junk his code of conduct after umpteen reworks.
Nothing changes
Despite Faulkner laying out a comprehensive agenda for greater political transparency, including having a swipe at his own government, the bulk of the media coverage …focused on the topical and more controversial elements relating to the NSW Labor Party.
http://uat.crikey.com.au/2012/12/05/media-dooms-faulkners-ambitious-transparency-agenda/
Faulkner also addressed that too:
Howard’s code of conduct, first released with great fanfare in 1996, later hastily watered down once and then twice and finally junked.
Minister Jim Short was forced to resign for failing to divest himself of financial interests in his area of ministerial responsibility.
Industry minister John Moore was exposed for his shareholdings in technology investment and share-trading companies.
Parliamentary secretary Brian Gibson lost his job because of a conflict of interest.
Small business minister Geoff Prosser was running three shopping centres while he was a minister and he was forced to resign.
Resources minister Warwick Parer had massive share interests in a coalmine and in other resource companies; he stayed, in breach of the ministerial code.
Acting minister for communications Peter McGauran forgot that he owned 70 poker machines.
Employment services minister Mal Brough promoted training courses which were actually Liberal Party fundraisers.
Industry minister Ian Macfarlane was involved in a complex scam to rort GST rebates from Liberal Party fundraisers.
Aboriginal affairs minister John Herron kept up his practice as a surgeon, in breach of the code.
Mr Howard himself was found to be in breach of his own code when he failed to resign as a director of the Menzies Research Centre. Mr Howard misled the parliament over meetings he had held with ethanol producer Manildra’s boss – massive Liberal Party donor Dick Honan. It was eventually proved that the meetings did occur, and three weeks later the government increased trade penalties against a Brazilian ethanol producer.
Parliamentary secretary Warren Entsch’s concrete company won a massive government contract in breach of the code.
Peter Reith was appointed as a consultant to defence contractor Tenix immediately after resigning as defence minister.
Health minister Michael Wooldridge signed a $5 million building deal for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and days later, after resigning as health minister, was employed by the college as a consultant.
Senator Coonan, as Minister for Revenue, avoided paying a land tax. She was then exposed and forced to resign as a registered director of an insurance dispute resolution company operating from her own home.
Wilson Tuckey, then Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, heavied a state police minister on behalf of a family member.
Parliamentary secretary Bob Woods retired from politics when he was under police investigation for travel rorts.
Communication minister Richard Alston’s family trust held Telstra shares.
Peter Costello, the Treasurer, appointed Liberal Party megadonor Robert Gerard to the Reserve Bank board despite being told by Mr Gerard that he was involved in a 14-year-long tax evasion dispute with the Australian Taxation Office.
Three ministers – John Sharp, David Jull and Peter McGauran – were forced to resign as a result of travel rorts involving false claims, mismanagement or cover-ups.
Parliamentary secretary Bill Heffernan was forced to resign over fabricated claims against a High Court judge.
I’m loving you even more L.o.L. Tell us more; just brilliant!
Is Tim Heffernan a genetic arm. Mental health and disability seem to have a fascinating web of characters beginning with Mr corridors himself Allan Fels.
Who sold off our.Gold Reserve?
Costello
Did anyone remember the gag clauses that are now standard for all federal government funding for charities?
Complain and you get nothing clauses, that was the Howard government.
Since mid 1996, that was the turning point for Australia towards UK/UK styled inequity and the destruction of the fabric of society.
Porter has seemingly got to the point for Morrison now, that the PM has moved past blustering defending Porter, to (in at least pretending to check whether Porter has breached ministerial standards) considering whether to cut his losses and throw Porter under a bus. If he does cut Porter loose, it would be the first thing that Morrison has ever done to actually make the world a better place.
Except that he wouldn’t be doing so for that reason but to save his own worthless hide.
‘…dishonesty, corruption…’ etc. etc.
In my experience, these ARE christian values.
Thank you once again Bernard Keane and Crikey for an article on Christian Porter while other media outlets prefer not to touch the toxic Porter
So was it News Corp who might have anonymously paid Porter’s legal fees?
Yeh Nah it is likely to be Stokes from the 7 network. He is also paying for Ben Roberts Smith defamation case and is also a WA’er. Stokes and the alleged rapist go back a long way. The evil Murdoch family would not be paying one cent as they would consider there is no financial benefit to the family business. Stokes would be doing it for the notoriety and ego.
Good piece from Crikey, but The Age at least did mention it, and Turnbull’s comment.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/christian-porter-s-legal-fees-paid-in-part-by-blind-trust-20210914-p58rjw.html
Guardian Australia also mentioned it yesterday and today. But all BTL comments, even if they name no names, are quickly wiped.
Yes TG is a shivering mess when it comes to Porter