Scott Morrison’s mendacity is now a well-established fact of Australian public life, even in the twilight of his career as he sits, otherwise unemployable, on the opposition backbench.
His belated response to the robodebt royal commission report in Parliament yesterday maintains that record of mendacity, as he misled Parliament — something he readily did as prime minister — in maintaining his innocence of anything relating to the debacle that led to the suicides of several people and the misery of hundreds of thousands.
Indeed, Morrison believes he’s the real victim of robodebt. The tens of thousands of Australians who received entirely fictional debt notices, the tens of thousands more sent grossly inflated bills, the dead and their families, were merely “unintended consequences”, he maintains, whereas he is the victim of a “political lynching” by Labor.
The former prime minister rejects royal commissioner Catherine Holmes’ finding that he allowed cabinet to be misled, because — he says — he was the victim of public servants who failed to do their job: “I was constitutionally and legally entitled to assume the officers of the department had complied with their obligations under the Public Service Act to advise their respective ministers. As a result my obligations were fully and properly discharged.”
Any suggestion he should have questioned public servants’ assurances that no legislation was required to make robodebt legal was naive and would make the job of a minister “unworkable”.
Morrison’s defence hinges on the fact that public servants changed the new policy proposal (NPP) that Morrison took to the Expenditure Review Committee to remove reference to the unlawful practice of income averaging and the need for legislative change, thus misleading cabinet. Morrison says what was put in the NPP overrode all previous advice about the use of income averaging and the need for legislation.
But as Holmes noted, the then-cabinet handbook required that: “Ministers are expected to take full responsibility for the content, quality and accuracy of advice provided to the cabinet under their name.”
Morrison knew that income averaging formed part of the proposal, even though it stated there would be no change to how income was calculated. And he knew that legislative change was required to implement income averaging, because he had been told that previously by bureaucrats. When the requirement for legislative change conveniently vanished without explanation — after Morrison “made clear to DSS [Department of Social Services] that he wanted the DHS proposal progressed by way of NPP for the upcoming DSS portfolio budget submission without legislative change” — he stayed silent and asked no questions.
Morrison’s self-portrayal as an innocent gulled by bureaucrats falls away entirely on the charge that he misled the royal commission about his belief that income averaging was part of the way DSS had always operated. Holmes forensically details Morrison’s evidence and shows there is simply no way that Morrison could plausibly claim to have believed that when he approved the NPP in 2015.
Morrison admitted to the royal commission that he was never told in writing there was a longstanding practice of income averaging, saying “It would have come up in verbal briefings” — except he couldn’t say who told him. He began claiming he’d been told verbally only during his evidence to the commission, not in his formal statement beforehand.
His department at the time, DSS, knew there was no practice of income averaging, because it was unlawful, as it told the Human Services Department (DHS), so it wouldn’t have told him. DHS officers knew that income averaging was used only occasionally with the agreement of the recipient, so it wouldn’t have told Morrison either. In fact Morrison was specifically told that income needed to be calculated fortnightly to determine overpayments.
Later ministers were misled by DHS that income averaging was a longstanding practice, but Holmes shows in brutal detail that Morrison hasn’t got a leg to stand on in claiming he was told that in 2015. He was reduced yesterday to insisting “there was therefore a reasonable likelihood that such views would have been conveyed to me at the time”. Except there’s no such likelihood. He misled the commission.
And Morrison’s insistence that he didn’t pressure public servants over the development of robodebt again falls short of the detailed assessment of the royal commission. He had publicly committed to being a tough cop on the welfare beat and to restoring “integrity” in his new portfolio, and told public servants he didn’t want anything that required legislation, and that he “expect[ed] them to get on and deliver it”.
Public servants specifically told the commission that, despite the concept of robodebt needing further refinement (not to mention legislative change), there was pressure to “get on with it. Just get on with it … And we collectively got on with it.”
Morrison’s greatest lie, however, is his callow expression of regret for what he claimed were “unintended consequences”.
The misery inflicted on hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients was no unintended consequence of robodebt. It was the very point of it.
The scheme’s unlawful use of averaging was “essentially unfair”, the commission found. “It subverted the rationale on which income support was provided in the first place.”
Recipients were deliberately pressured to furnish proof of income going back five years when DHS told them to keep payslips for only six months, often from employers who had since gone out of business. Recipients were deliberately forced to go online rather than deal with DHS officers, in a disastrous attempt to find savings.
There appears to have been an obliviousness to, or worse a callous disregard, of the fact that many welfare recipients had neither the means nor the ability to negotiate an online system.
That is, in overall conception and in detailed design, robodebt was intended to be unfair and difficult for the most marginalised members of the community.
The only “unintended consequence” for Morrison is that, eventually, belatedly, the unfairness, the cruelty, the illegality, the abandonment of basic standards of government process, not to mention decency, were exposed in detail. And he was central to it.
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A despicable human being if ever there was one
Totally stumped as to whether this slithering toerag is a bigger and nastier turd than Howard.
Howard is possibly worse because he was competently evil, and of course laid the groundwork for what the Liberal (sic) Party has become. We were only protected from ProMo’s malice by his laziness and incompetence.
Lest We Forget The Mad Abbot and HIs Mendacity, learnt at the knee of John Howard.
Also the protege of Bob Santamaria and George Pell
I see Santamaria’s evil spawn, the National Civic Council organised and abetted Warren Mundoine’s lies to a regional audience in refuting the Voice.
The evil that men do certainly does live on after them. Shame on Mundine for even associating with such vile zealots.
And Price
Howard was indeed a hell of a lot worse than he seemed, which was pretty despicable already for a leftie; most patriots should’ve despised him.
But Scummo, although he came unstuck, plumbed new depths in the race to the bottom for public standards. Utterly pathetic, Trump-like kakistocracy crap. Elevating a while bunch of irrelevant Pentecostal mates to positions of influence, and so on… Real two-bit tin-pot third world malarkey.
Howard broke ground and ate away the foundations of ethics and decency, that allowed followers to dig deeper and build on.
But he couldn’t have done that without the Party (big thumbs up/down[?] to Peter Reith and Costello) aiding and abetting his razing of those standards, the ‘legitimising’ of such behaviour – when ‘winning at any cost’ was everything.
Who can forget that Howard actually chose a priest to be Australia’s Head of State. Much to Howard’s disappointment he was forced to stand down because this priest was found to have committed indiscretions. Who would have thought?
I think, technically, that the priest in question hadn’t himself committed indiscretions, but turned a blind eye to others who he knew had or were. I suppose that was a commendation for Howard, having a viceroy who wouldn’t ask any questions.
But it’s another classic example of the Watergate principle that the coverup is more serious than the original crime because it stops the latter from coming out.
It was impressed upon me, once as a Catholic child but Catholic no more, that there were both sins of commission and sins of omission.
As well as the sins of commission by the abusers, there was the failure, those of omission such as committed by the hierarchy in allowing such to continue by refusing to acknowledge such and even moving the known abusers from parish to parish or state to state.
This came to the fore in the sexual abuse that was carried out by clergy at all levels and others in both the Anglican and Catholic Churches in Australia as exposed in the Royal Commission
Not to forget the evil twins of Nick Minchin and Eric Abetz. And the one who reminds me most of Hannah Arendt’s The Banality of Evil, Phillip Ruddock.
There’s a Monster’s Ball of ’em…. Downer, Vanstone, Allston, Wooldridge, “Kero Bath” Bishop, the bothers Kemp …. Newman …. that role-call goes on.
Thanks for that fine word Kimmo. Kakistocracy. Good one.
“Crapistocracy”?
ha ha
That Crapist monk/Abbott?
Howard wrote the book.
And his high priest schtick
Both pushing logic via the contra deals – selling/ betrayal Australians’ resources and our individual agency – stealing democracy for profiteering
Different kind of nasty.
Howard was an ideological warrior.
Pretty sure Morrison’s only in it for himself.
Morrison’s a b@lls out holy roller, like Abbott. Both were, like the Blues Brothers, “on a mission from God”.
Howard was a religious reactionary, but it wasn’t central to his nastiness IMHO.
Yes, Morrison was appointed by God so in his own fevered mind the secular authorities have no business holding him to account. Seems like Hillsong are not going to appoint him to a lucrative job there, maybe they have enough problems already.
Howard was of the type that becomes a high-ranking functionary in a murderous fascist regime, faithfully carrying out orders with no thought to the morality of them.
Either that or of a mass murderer, normally a small-minded object of no consequence, derided for his ineptitudes in his youth and getting his revenge.
Like choosing a turd over a vomit bomb
Remember when Smirko first became PM and opinions were sought from his former schoolmates. They could not find any who had a positive memory of the guy. In fact several referred to him as a C. An that doesn’t stand for cat.
Hector, I shared classes with Jack Howard and can assure you he never changed, remaining a self fixated, inferior, sullen, thoughtless, anti-intellectual, bullshitting mediocrity…
Says a lot about those who voted him leader.
They had little choice. Don’t forget there was a conga line of incompetents (including Howard and Peacock) proving the Peter Principle as short term opposition leader during the Hawke / Keating years. The liberal party, desperately short of real talent, gave the two named above multiple chances at proving their incompetence and Howard had the good luck to be in position when the election that Mickey Mouse could have won was called.
Sadly, the liberal party has even less promising talent now.
What about Billy Snedgoon, the pantless Rushcutter’s Bay sometime denizen ?
A friend of a friend was at Riverview with Tony Abbott. While politically on the right he utterly loathed Abbott, and remembered him saying even that he was going to be PM one day.
And I’m one of many people who were at Sydney Uni when Abbott was a student politician and at one time SRC President, and have loathed him with a passion ever since.
One year his family too part in the local church musical society production of Oliver!
In which Morrison played the Artful Dodger, so he became very true to form then on!
Howard was, and still is the model. Thing is, he still breathes his fiery, toxic air into our political environment.
Yes. Howard is the puppet master, still pulling the strings.
Howard and Morrison defy the laws of formal logic – A is worse than B, but B is worse than A.
Did Morrison not have a little statuette of a boat with the inscription “I stopped these”? So when he was Minister for Immigration and Border Protection he was right on top of what his dept was doing, in fact he was directing things because he has taken credit for that, thus taking full responsibility – “I stopped these”, not “We stopped these”..
But then when he moved into Social Services, he left all the policy stuff to the bureaucrats and he just did what they told him, so he has no responsibility.
But then when he was PM, suddenly he discovered Robodebt was illegal so he took responsibility for stopping it.
The only thing Morrison is responsible for is not taking responsibility when it doesn’t suit him.
He did not stopThe Plague Ship, Ruby Princess…Given quarantine is in the purview of the Federal Government it is clear that at the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic and its arrival in Australia that the buck stopped with the Federal Government, in particular the then Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and his Department Secretary Mike Pezzullo.
In an act of negligence bordering on the criminal, 2700 passengers were waved off a cruise ship — despite their status as floating incubators of disease — and onto the streets of Sydney. 130 Ruby Princess passengers tested positive for coronavirus. It was the equivalent of giving Typhoid Mary the key to New York City.
Ever since, the NSW and federal governments were blaming each other and Carnival, owner of the ship and the giant of the wretched, toxic and environmentally damaging global cruise industry.
NSW Health says it was following federal guidelines and letting people off ships is a matter for the Australian Border Force. Border Force says NSW Health graded the ship as low-risk. Premier Gladys Berejiklian blamed ABF and the Federal Government.
The harbour master on duty when the Ruby Princess docked in Sydney on 19 March offered to “turn it around” when he was called by the Australian Border Force expressing concerns about the ship, a special commission of inquiry has heard.
The inquiry into the cruise ship, which has been linked to 21 deaths and almost 700 cases of Covid-19, also heard that the ship was “hurried” back to Sydney because coronavirus swabs on board needed urgent testing, and that a sick passenger was taken by ambulance “directly to a Covid-designated area” of Royal Prince Alfred hospital.
Cameron Butchart, the port services manager and duty harbour master for the NSW Port Authority, told the inquiry he had “a concern for the occupational health and safety” of sending a pilot on board to help the ship dock, because of Covid-19.
He said on the night of 18 March and again on 19 March he was called by representatives of Home Affairs and the Australian Border Force.
“This particular person certainly had concerns with the situation,” he said. “I used the phrase on the night ‘turn it around’ [which] was probably the simplest way to explain it to someone on shoreside.
“But we more than likely could have held the ship in a certain position. We could have dropped an anchor … to allow us to gather some more facts.”
Commissioner Bret Walker SC asked Butchart: “Had you ever experienced anything like that before?”
“Never,” Butchart said.
The Ruby Princess was then allowed to dock after a second call from the same Border Force officer.
The ABF had been notified as to the arrival of the ship…Dobrila Tokovic, who was the port agent for the Ruby Princess on 19 March…said she had called an ABF manager to “notify them the vessel is coming in earlier” and said two passengers needed immediate ambulance transfers to hospital.’
Why an apparent lack of communication by the ABF manager to those further up the chain of command in the ABF given the seriousness of any Covid-19 infection making land in the Commonwealth of Australia?
For it is the ABF, a large part of the Department of Home Affairs, that is responsible for offshore and onshore border control enforcement, investigations, compliance and detention operations in Australia.
No ABF officer was allowed be present at the inquiry!
The bloke was the Minister at inception, continued it as Treasurer & would have kept it going as PM but for a class action won by the plaintiffs (the dudded). Now wants to hide behind the very people (departmental heads) he told when becoming PM that they were simply there to do as their Minister told them.
Brought back vague memories of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem
A strange loop, indeed (or in deed).
Scomo already had a troubled history prior to being elected; allegedly in Tourist Departments of Australia and New Zealand, and in how he came to become the representative of Cook. There are no surprises that he disputes strong evidence against him. It will be a good day when Scomo leaves Parliament.
…leaves this planet…
Leaves Parliament and goes to jail – directly to jail without collecting any parliamentary pension.
there is no Parliamentary pension to collect
True. But there is the parliamentary superannuation scheme, which is more generously funded than other super schemes. #30 can draw on his superannuation fund when he turns 60 – which is a few years off yet.
He was “let go” from two positions, Tourism NZ and Tourism Australia due to some questionable practices in dealing with advertising and media companies.
An audit report covering Scott Morrison’s role in the New Zealand tourism office raises serious concerns over transparency and due process. By Karen Middleton. The Saturdy Paper 17 November 2018
Morrison ‘hijacked’ NZ tourism review
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2018/11/17/morrison-hijacked-nz-tourism-review/15423732007158
New documents show the clearest picture yet of Scott Morrison’s dismissal at Tourism Australia, including scathing correspondence from Fran Bailey. By Karen Middleton. The Saturdy Paper 06 August 2019
Fresh documents in Morrison’s sacking.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2019/06/08/fresh-documents-morrisons-sacking/15599160008252
Karen Middleton had repeatedly sought information under FOI concerning the Tourism Australia dismissal , but was denied such.
protection racket by any other name
It was of course, a matter of “National Security”…………………
…………or possibly “Cabinet-In-Confidence”.
………..or was that “Commercial-In-Confidence”?
………..or possibly just “The Dog Ate My Homework”.
Thanks Bernard.
Nailed that devious scumbag to his foul mess.
BK making most other journos look like craven hacks, yet again.
I like BK’s work when it is evidence based, timely, and pointed like this piece. It’s why I subscribe to Crikey.
His speech was given in an almost empty chamber.
As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest blabbers.
He makes these comments in Parliament so no one can sue him for defamation
Bill Shorten just delivered a hefty serve to Morrison in Question Time.
Action and deeds not mere words labor- super profits tax
Saw bills dismantling of scrotmo’s pathetic justification and blame shift a zingerfest!!
Scummo is actually quick-witted, deviously so. And he is intelligent. It is his empty soul, greedily devouring the calorifically empty spiritual promises of prosperity gospel, and his lack of empathy or integrity that have done him in.
emotional cripple
He sure does have a talent for twisting damning facts into justifications and denials of just enough superficial credibility to sound reasonable to the completely uninformed.
Lest We Forget that Smirko, Brother Stuart RobDebt, Hawke et al, as well as others in that former so called government adhered to Pentecostalism, to which had been added the so called Prosperity Gospel.
Such in conjunction with their chiliastic eschatology, that has it all the true believers, that is those that are Pentecostalists, will be taken from the earth by The Rapture…while all others, atheists and all those that follow any other religion, Christian or otherwise will be subject to The Great Tribulation…where they will all experience worldwide hardships, disasters, famine, war, pain, and suffering, which will wipe out most of all life on the earth before the Second Coming takes place.
Could it be that Smirko and his ilk in their hearts are – unlike the overwhelming majority of Australians – not concerned with the prospect of any coming catastrophe when his own salvation is assured?”
For it apppear that there is no place for science and no recognition of human-induced global heating in Pentecostal theology.
So there would apparently be no point in mortal Pentecostals trying to listen and respond to the cry of the Earth because the fate of our planet and its life is considered out of their hands in that of their Lord!
“… Robodebt was guaranteed to raise false debts because the assumptions were idiotic.”
The false debts weren’t an unintended result. The assumptions weren’t “idiotic “, the intention was malevolent, Morrison and Co couldn’t give a stuff. Those target people were ants to be crushed. Take money off the poor and give it to the rich. Standard procedure.
Campbell on 900 k for her efforts …. But the lobbyist partner of a big 4 making parasitic impostes to our public pie ; he was on between 2- 4 million per annum
You may well be right. It certainly fits with the attitudes and objectives of those who follow the prosperity religions.
And the pr!ck dared to say he was a follower of Jesus, who while I am not a Christian regard as a major ethical teacher.
yes i never heard Jesus say bolster profits over people