As with the Turnbull instalment, only more so, we in the Crikey bunker were struck by the sheer number of Scott Morrison-era scandals the ABC’s Nemesis was unable to cover. With the understandable focus on COVID-19 management, Morrison’s multiple ministries, a cautious look at the Brittany Higgins allegations, and the behind-the-scenes wrangling of the AUKUS announcement, the latest episode barely had time to scratch the surface of the pure uncut weirdness and scandal of ScoMo’s reign.
Voting for white supremacy
In October 2018, Morrison government senators opted to support a motion put forward by Senator Pauline Hanson, which spouted the white supremacist slogan “It’s okay to be white”. Several senior government figures doubled down on the decision before back-tracking and redoing the vote, opposing the notion. The fuck-up was blamed on an “administrative error” rather, than, oh, I don’t know, a horrifying attempt at dog-whistling that backfired spectacularly?
This came only a few months after Parliament united in self-congratulation over its apparent opposition to racism.
Angus Taylor
You wouldn’t know it from the amiable figure who appeared in Nemesis, but then energy minister Angus Taylor had a very busy 2019, on his way to one of the most convincing wins Crikey’s Arsehat of the Year award has ever seen: there was Grassgate, which necessitated a Department of Environment investigation into the clearing of critically endangered grasslands at a property owned by the Taylor family. Watergate. Deploying forged documents against Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, which necessitated an embarrassing and ultimately inconclusive police investigation.
And, of course, in the lead-up to the 2019 election, Taylor defined the art of getting caught posting from an alt, when he wrote “Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus” on his own Facebook post.
Sports rorts
At the time it was rightly identified as one of the most blatant acts of pork-barrelling in Australian history. By the end of 2020, thanks to COVID-19 and a year of lockdowns, it had been more or less lost to memory. In the lead-up to the 2019 election, Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie and her office actively directed the $100 million “community sport infrastructure program” grants process toward marginal seats. This led to absurdities such as upmarket golf clubs receiving nearly $200,000 to revamp their foyer, while football clubs that easily met the grant’s criteria and needed women’s change rooms failed to receive any help. McKenzie, on a tangentially related matter, had to stand down. You know, for a bit.
Which is nearly as bad as…
Car parks rorts
The “national commuter car park fund” was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It funded 47 car parks and guess how they got picked? There was a list drawn up by staffers in then infrastructure minister Alan Tudge’s office of the top 20 marginal seats ahead of the 2019 election. Further, the allocation was influenced by other ministers and state Liberal counterparts. Not one recommendation from the Department of Infrastructure made it into their final list.
Which is nearly as bad as…
Building better regions fund
In 2022, the Australian National Audit Office found that 65% of a $1.1 billion set of grants under the “building better regions fund” should not have been awarded. You are never going to believe this, but all of that money went to Coalition electorates, and the allocation was largely decided by a National Party-controlled committee, which consistently rejected departmental advice.
Stacks on
Not limited to the Morrison government, but certainly accelerated by it, was the incredible stacking of nominally independent bodies such as the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Fair Work Commission, with dozens and dozens of partisan appointments flooding in over the nine years of Coalition rule. At the same time came the degradation of the public service, most clearly revealed by the robodebt scandal.
Christian Porter
Though he briefly appeared in file footage, as far as we could tell the name Christian Porter was not uttered once over the nearly five hours of programming about the government for which he was a senior member. Which is understandable — the attorney-general under the Morrison government sued the ABC for reporting historical, and strenuously denied, allegations of sexual assault against him (though he had not initially been identified) that surfaced in early 2021. That this legal action was funded by a blind trust was the last straw, and Porter did not contest the 2022 election.
Honourable mentions
There was Morrison’s uncharacteristic speed to act on the very real threat of strawberry-based terror, via a Sorkinesque walk and talk. While the program dedicates a minute to Morrison’s reputation for “truth issues”, we’d probably suggest the producers could have gone a little harder on the dozens of demonstrable lies and falsehoods from his time in power. Barnaby Joyce insisted he and Morrison weren’t enemies, but there were those leaked texts in which he called him a “liar and hypocrite“, while New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian (one of the state premiers of the era to not participate in Nemesis) apparently told a colleague Morrison was a “horrible person”, to which the colleague replied that he was “a complete psycho”.
Speaking of texts, there was the 2022 election day scare Morrison and then home affairs minister Karen Andrews’ offices cooked up by trying to force Home Affairs to share information about an asylum seeker boat from Sri Lanka being intercepted on its way to Australia. Safe to say it ended the era in an appropriately cynical and grubby fashion.
What other sagas and scandals were overlooked? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
What does it say about the Australian electorate that they would see fit to vote for a party with a record of ‘achievements’ like those described in the Nemesis series, in the 2022 Federal Election? Logic dictates that they should have been ‘wiped off the map”, when in fact they scored 47.87% of the vote on a national two-party preferred basis, (see AEC details online). I doubt that the percentage vote for the LNP will be much, if at all lower than this at the next Federal Election.
To me, it says that many Australians are a greedy, selfish, self-centered mob who are incapable of any sort of in-depth analysis when it comes to matters political (as distinct from sport and other trivial issues such as the Royal Family). Clearly, the “bugger you Jack, I’m alright” ethos (which was well established long before I ever arrived on the scene), is still alive and well.
To me it says that the majority of Australians are turned off by the antics of our politicians and the constantly revolving door of PMs – Rudd>Gillard>Rudd>Abbott>Turnbull>Morrison. Many people have enough worries about making ends meet without further anger and despair at the selfish attitudes and generally poor behaviour of federal politicians. I think that the reason the so-called Teals did so well was that the electorates they won have voters who are not so badly stressed and who have time to look and listen to politicians – and decide to make a change because they did not like what they saw.
But voting for a party that will deliberately hurt them has been going on forever. How else can we explain that the coalition has been on power for a big majority of the time. Yes, people are hurting at the moment, but even when not, Australians were too lazy to look beyond the propagander in the MSM. The conservatives have their moutpieces in the MSM and know they will be supported, no matter what.
I think, old fella, that both you and MJM make some valid points. It is good to get the views from both of you. I am however, more inclined to see things from your point of view though. These voting patterns have been “going on forever”.
They are not political party supporters based on policies. Go the blues.
There’s no turning these bozos around; you may as well be trying to talk a Holden fan into switching camps to Ford. Facts are entirely beside the point, somehow
While we are on the subject, yesterday there was an item (available online) on ABC RN Breakfast where Geoffrey Watson SC talked about the proposed replacement for the AAT and explained how the new body is at risk of the exact same issues. Dreyfus’s proposal would allow for all prospective members of the new tribunal be selected by an independent body to assure their suitability, before the minister decides who to pick from that short list — but the minister would be equally free to not bother with all that, and instead directly appoint mates, stooges, political hacks, swivel-eyed lunatics and party donors, in the time-honoured traditional way we all know and love. Dreyfus is happy to let each future minister choose which way to go.
This could be deliberate strategy. They know whatever they put up crossbench will want more, so they’ve put up a flawed model they’re expecting to trade up into something better… (could be, might not be likely)
I don’t believe that. Dreyfus is being cunning. He is going through actions that allow him to say he has carried out election pledges, but he is doing it so the status quo remains. The crossbench is irrelevant if this bill gets bipartisan support, and the proposal looks like something the Coalition will be keen to agree. It’s just like the NACC — Labor and the Coalition worked happily together to pull its teeth and prevent any potential unpleasantness such as public hearings, so that bill sailed through both houses with the crossbench completely helpless. Here’s another case where the major parties interests coincide.
I think you are right. It will be the ‘low hanging fruit’ of amendments that will make it easier to reject other demands that may be a stretch too far for the social democrat government.
Isn’t that how it always was? And there was never a problem? Until the LNP started stacking the AAT with people who weren’t even qualified?
Of course it is – that’s Watson’s point, and mine. Dreyfus is just going around in a big circle to put everything back where it was. And there’s no reason the Coalition would oppose it, so the idea Dreyfus has a clever plan to do a deal with the Senate crossbench is not credible.
This is why the LNP needs to be taken out the back and shot, so people can stop mistaking Labor for the good guys, and turn to the Greens.
Morrison is a man who has learnt nothing from his time as PM. The justifications just kept coming last night, including the lame reason for bugging off to Honolulu during a natural disaster. Not to mention the circumstances & convolutions around shafting Macron. Nothing is ever his fault, he’s untainted by guilt.
Predictably, Morrison smugged his way through the entire episode. Surprise surprise, it’s his default mode. Curious to see how long his next career appointment lasts.
A conniving, ‘evangelical’ bully – the more power he was given (and he was given it by the party that elected him to lead it) the more he abused it.
He has to lie because he needs excuses, and scapegoats, to blame for his trail of selfish, short-sighted decisions and actions.
Traits that shouldn’t be classed as ‘assets’ in his next/any role.
“ Morrison is a man who has learnt nothing from his time as PM”
No Zut. Morrison learned he can get away with all that, then continue to use up oxygen in our parliament until the right lucrative offer came along from the private sector. If he blows that one, another one will be along shortly. Morrison has always been rewarded for his behaviour. Why do you think that will stop now?
Scott the spiv’s body of work is breathtakingly dreadful. Abbott set the standard for hopeless prime ministers only to be comprehensively eclipsed by Morrison. I’m hoping Australians will never give Dutton the chance to out-drongo Scomo.
In the 12 months before the fires, a group of concerned retired emergency and fire leaders tried four times to meet with Morrison because of their concern at Australia’s total unpreparedness for what ending up happening. They were refused a hearing four times.
And a few of the talking heads in Nemesis said Morrison ‘learned’ from his failings during the fires. No he didn’t. He went on and did SFA about the climate change turbo-charging these natural disasters.
Yes I agree. Having your (many) failings publicly called out
And being forced to acknowledge them is far from “learning” from them. The number of times he said that his comments could have been less clumsily expressed were many. But the fact is he could not express them any other way because he, like Abbott, has a totally tin ear.
But also, what he said at the time was an accurate indication of his actual attitude. But he’s a marketing man in the marketing world that politics has now become, so everything becomes: ‘Oh, that could have been spun differently’, not ‘I was wrong’, or ‘I stuffed that up’. I call it the sociopath’s excuse.