A novel round of finger-pointing is emerging among some conservatives after the robodebt royal commission, and that is to declare the government of the day guilty of having engaged in a partisan abuse of power, loosely defined.
Writing in The Australian on Saturday, Chris Kenny ominously warned of the “Americanisation of our system” wrought by the “weaponisation of quasi-judicial processes” for political gain.
He worried about the spectre of using the robodebt royal commission findings to “hound” former prime minister Scott Morrison “out of Parliament”, framing the conduct of Government Services Minister Bill Shorten as predatory in this regard.
And while Kenny conceded Shorten had fallen victim to “similar tactics” during the Tony Abbott era, he intimated that Shorten’s seeming exploitation of the robodebt royal commission was of a different order, comparable with that of US Democrats who oppose Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential tilt.
The broadsheet’s Paul Kelly was of a similar mind, lamenting what he called the “judicialisation of politics”, despite acknowledging the robodebt royal commission itself was justified.
The use of royal commissions as “instruments of moral punishment” or methods of “brutalised revenge”, he said, with the public and media standing by “demanding retribution”, had emerged as a “new modus operandi” for incoming government.
“Labor has repaid this technique in spades.”
These are large and heroic claims. And ones that take Morrison’s complaints of “political intimidation”, along with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s rhetoric of “witch-hunts”, to their logical conclusions, exposing some within conservative media as the seeming amanuenses of Morrison or Dutton. Or they of them.
It would be a mistake, though, to dismiss such views as another flop from Coalition studio productions, or group therapy for anyone on the right overborne by frightening new levels of shared denial or delusion.
On the contrary, one way — perhaps the only way — of neutralising or diluting genuine, far-reaching scandals, such as robodebt or Morrison’s baffling secret one-man government, is to label any inquiry announced by the opposing side as necessarily and irreducibly partisan. Something heralding a dangerous descent into calcified polarisation emblematic of our American counterparts and therefore posing a threat to our democracy.
The criticism or technique, so far as it encompasses all scandals — however bad or objectively terrible or not terrible — glosses over such distinctions (at least so far as Labor is concerned), relegating any inquiry into said scandal as little more than an echo chamber of partisan obsessions.
At its heart, the argument of Kelly and Kenny is that Labor’s recent inquiries into robodebt and the secret ministries confirm we have entered the realm of what might be called “total politics”: a state of being where politics becomes an ersatz religion that privileges self-interest and winning at all costs above decidedly quaint ideas like the public interest.
Distilled, total politics is the domain of institutional arsonists. It is a space in which norms and conventions are brazenly abused, sabotaged and degraded, but where rules are technically followed yet pushed to their absolute limits — and sometimes breached in the name of partisan advantage. All that matters, as writer David Graham has pointed out, is “what’s possible, not what’s prudent”.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. It was, after all, during the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments that norm-torching, lying and the degradation of the common good were elevated to a national pastime, and where many on the right did their utmost to import or ape the worst of the nativism of the Republican Party in day-to-day Australian politics.
This unbounded, born-to-rule, power-for-power’s-sake mentality found, and continues to find, reflection in the routine contempt displayed by the Coalition for various oversight bodies, such as the auditor-general, occasionally the courts, as well as the NSW anti-corruption body.
It also found frequent expression in the Coalition’s various multibillion-dollar rorts; Angus “fantastic” Taylor’s attacks on Clover Moore; Morrison’s 2022 election-day boat arrival stunt; his tacit support of violent anti-lockdown protesters in Melbourne; the tenor of the failed voter identification and religious discrimination bills; and, not least, his sustained attacks on minorities, such as refugees, whom he falsely labelled as rapists and murderers, among other examples.
But perhaps nowhere was this mindset of total politics so exquisitely captured than in the robodebt and secret ministries scandals, where the conduct of government manifestly morphed into whatever Morrison and co deemed appropriate.
Far from representing a symptom or a variant of the same political malaise, Labor’s inquiries into these particular scandals are part of the necessary antidote. The same applies to the newly established National Anti-Corruption Commission, which was not formed to inflict ongoing revenge on the Coalition but in response to the general degradation of democracy during its term.
In reality, the only side of politics that has demonstrated, and continues to manifest, an unswerving penchant for total politics is the Coalition, as vividly encapsulated in the uncommon devotion that Morrison — for all his disgrace — continues to inspire among his colleagues.
Arguments to the contrary that seek to paint and taint Labor with the same brush are not only removed from reality, they also do nothing to disabuse the Coalition of the political malady that has long infected it. If anything, they cement the delusion — not by insisting the Coalition is innocent, but by suggesting it’s improper to hold it to account. And that poses dangers for our democracy.
As former Labor MP Doug Cameron tweeted yesterday in answer to Taylor’s insistence that Morrison remains a “highly respected” member of Parliament: “This misplaced, misguided and utterly stupid tribalism from the Liberal leadership shows they have learned nothing and still treat honesty, integrity and good government with utter contempt.”
That’s weird, because Kenny, that apparently good friend of dogs, never uttered a single word when Abbott called a Royal Commission into Whether Julia Gillard was a union thug, or the Royal Commission into the pink batts saga.
As usual, the hypocritical streak down the back of Kenny’s spine is there for all of us to see.
But hey! This is the Murdoch filth, even if it IS the Murdoch flagship filth that we seeing here, and every other day, without relief.
So I DO think that the next Royal Commission might be better directed at Rupert Murdoch and his toxic influence – through the likes of Kenny, and the other usual suspects – over Australia’s democracy and its institutions.
As I was reading the article my thoughts turned to what you posted in the first two paragraphs. I was going to post the same but you beat me to the punch.
I heartily agree.
It strikes me that the only way most Australians are even aware of Chris Kenny is via Crikey and the ABC. I wish they’d both stop quoting him so he can prattle on without any real audience.
I first learned of Chris Kenny from the Chaser. Can’t say why, might get sued.
Funny how Kenny acted the free-speech absolutist when his colleague, Andrew Bolt, was being paid to produce “significant distortions of facts” that both offended and slandered others, yet was first in line to crush free-speech when he himself was offended by satire.
Did you have to wait a long time for the Moderator to approve that remark about dogs?
The ever cant Kenny and his etchings in the anals of Mudroch history? …. What was his line when Abbott set up that RC into ‘unions’, and slotted “Dysey” Heydon, one of his mentors, in to head it, to deliver the outcome that they wanted?
…. And what were the result of their efforts and toil?
… What happened to Abbott’s mate “Dysey”?
My mistake. That should be Rupert’s “annals” of course…..
No, I liked the first version.
Was ‘cant’ also a typo?
Wasn’t it Dr Johnson who enjoined us to rid our minds of cants?
If he gave a toss about democracy he might write Morrison and the dulkards up for abuse of power and incompetence ! A journalist ? wtf
Less a dinkum journalist, I think, more an angry stenographer.
Sure enough, the Coalition / LNP is completely consistent in claiming for its members impunity from all forms of accountability. Dutton and the rest all bleat and whine that they are the true victims of Robodebt because of the outcome of the subsequent inquiry. They refuse to acknowledge any legitimacy in any institution that tries to hold them to account. They do not admit any fault no matter how overwhelming the evidence, and simultaneously they project onto others all their all own most egregious behaviour. They are encouraged and supported by most of the media which has its own partisan and ideological motivations, particularly the large part of the media run by a certain foreign family which delights in spreading lies, traducing its enemies, fomenting discord and inflicting damage on the institutions of this country.
Well said. What I detest most is when found out, there is not one scintilla of remorse from this lot. Neither to the victims, nor us.
If this ends with a slap on the female wrist – as its’ turning out – marketing Morriscum will have chosen a fall gal for all the cruel ineptitude when ” it’s his brand; job seeker single mum , women deigned past their prime use.. mining blokes tradies / men and “young people” or men then working part time got double the support of that provided to women and single mums with children – deigned” job keeper” or job keepers as the corporates got billions for nothing
The job keeper scheme was almost certainly with the loophole for less honest liberal party donors to grab handfuls of cash whether need or not.
succession saw em implode resulting in a sell off of sovereign ownership- hes putting us all out including him is the irony
And glib appeals without any irony. They have been central enablers of past decades in “Americanisation of our system”, along with other usual suspects…. classic Orwellian doublespeak.
It’s the Liberal and National party’s that keep importing The Republican Party politics of lies, culture wars and intolerance. You can barely tell them apart. The religious zealots in these party’s are the ones destroying democracy.
It would have been unconscionable had Labor not called a Royal Commission into RoboDebt. The Coalition must take full responsibility for their actions. The Coalition blame Labor for everything whether they are in government or opposition. It’s always someone else’s fault, never theirs.
The LNP will never accept blame, so the prison system needs to enforce it on at least some of the ringleaders. That might engender some real introspection on the part of those that narrowly escape similar retribution.
Well said. Solitary seems the go. Have to protect the poor dears from the underlings.
The only introspection it would enforce would be in the form of ‘how can I make sure I’m never caught out’?
And the answer will always be – blame someone else, or make a woman carry the can.
It’s in the Ten Commandments that some of them profess to follow. The American religions of hate have added the eleventh: “thou shalt not get caught.
There ought to be a term of imprisonment for every member of that liberal cabinet who voted for the scheme.
Regardless of the legality of the scheme, any year 6 or year 7 primary school student could have told them that the method to be used would provide predominantly incorrect results and hurt thousands of innocent individuals. Are we to assume that a majority of that cabinet lacked the numeracy of a primary school student? Pretending to be unaware of the legal impediments to the scheme after being informed of them is simply further demonstration of the divine infallibility presumed by some members and the arrogant sense pf superiority claimed by the rest.
It makes me furious that the only point about the robbery of robodebt is its legality. If they had made it legal to rob the poor would that make it all right? I hope the answer is a resounding NO!
In other news, leaders of local criminal organisations are characterising law enforcement investigation as ‘intimidatory’ and complaining of the attendant ‘politicisation’ of the judiciary.
I think back to the “Pink Batts” inquiry, then say to myself, go for them labour.