A problem exists, and a plan is devised to fix the problem. Generally speaking, both sides think it works well, except down the track it is found that one could drive a truck through the rules, and companies do.

It is called “JobKeeper” and is designed to hold onto the link between employer and employee during the pandemic. When the rorting of the rules is noticed, the public becomes angry when companies decide to retain the taxpayer’s money they have been given.

The Labor Party also becomes angry and insists that the parties doing the rorting be exposed by the Tax Office.

The haves are delighted – when their accountants inform them that they haven’t broken the rules – and are entitled to keep the money.

The man who sees the world through the prism of his cash registers, Gerry Harvey of Harvey Norman fame, keeps a staggering $22 million is among the worst, but who knows. The government has told the Taxation Office not to reveal those companies who have kept the money. Keep them in the dark seem to be the call.

All because in their rushed need to put the JobKeeper plan in place, they failed to add a little clause that may have said that they would have to pay the money back in the event of any anomalies occurring.

Gerry Harvey says the $3.6m taxpayer subsidy his head office received is "a tiny amount".

Few Australians will earn $3.6m in a lifetime.

He's also pretending the JobKeeper that went to @HarveyNormanAU subsidiaries didn't help him.

Pay it back, Gerry. All of it. #auspol pic.twitter.com/JBfiYIDsle

— Andrew Leigh (@ALeighMP) February 26, 2021

The double standard comes in when 12,000 people have been issued welfare debts worth a total of almost $33m due to JobKeeper payments, as revealed by Guardian Australia this week.

One such person identified as Jan Raabe and quoted by The Guardian, said:

“I’m just a little person, I don’t have a very large income,” she said. “I don’t own my house. When I heard that certain churches and Harvey Norman and many other people pocketed millions, I feel it is disgusting they just won’t pay it back.

“Why are they allowed to get away with it? Why don’t they have to pay it back?”

Nor did she understand why large companies and non-profits who had projected a loss to claim jobkeeper but then turned a profit, and in some cases paid out dividends or executive bonuses, were not being chased by the government in the same way.

Those with a will, or should I say a moral line in their accountancy principles which have said they will pay the money back include Adairs, Toyota, Rebel Sports, Super Cheap Auto, BFC, Nik Scali, and Dominoes.

Those who have greedily accepted your money are listed in this article by Matthew Elmas in The New Daily.

The Federal Opposition has withdrawn its support for changes that would have required companies to reveal how much JobKeeper funding they received, however:

“Labor initially supported the amendments from independent Senator Rex Patrick after it was revealed at least four-point-six-billion-dollars in JobKeeper support went to businesses that recorded profits.”

Nobody is disputing the timely release of this policy and its effectiveness. However, what is disputed is why the government isn’t demanding that the JobKeeper money taken from the public purse be put back in the same way they are asking ordinary people to do.

The insipid answers they give don’t cut it with the many Australians who are outraged. Indeed, transparency is of the utmost importance in government, as are business ethics and morality. Still, in all fairness, Labor couldn’t put it ahead of families and businesses, who are hurting incredibly.

There will be many who disagree with that decision but Tanya Plibersek has assured supporters that Labor is “still committed” to naming businesses that profited from JobKeeper, despite voting down amendment, she told Patricia Karvelas on RN Drive.

Although I find it hard to agree with, the last thing we need in today’s COVID climate is the side attraction of two parties having a philosophical fight over who is ripping off the people.

Let me make a final point. Finance Minister Simon Birmingham rather gratuitously said that:

“We don’t think it’s appropriate to create a circumstance where now they are vilified with some sort of pretence that they weren’t eligible when they were eligible.”

The straightforward and unspun answer to this is that had they drawn up proper legislation, they wouldn’t have been in those circumstances.

It is 9 am Wednesday 11 August, when I begin writing this piece. I delay because new facts are coming to light. Because the day’s forecast is for a warm sunny day of 21 degrees that invites an early spring, one side of me wants desperately to venture into my garden. Still, the other summons the necessity of critical news.

Climate Change is now a statement of fact.

Landmark assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) has confirmed beyond doubt that human activities were overheating the planet with temperatures not seen for hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of years.

Here are some of the key points in the IPPC report:

A.1 It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.

A.2 The scale of recent changes across the climate system as a whole and the present state of many aspects of the climate system are unprecedented over many centuries to many thousands of years.

A.3 Human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. Evidence of observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones, and, in particular, there attribution to human influence, has strengthened since the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).

A.4 Improved knowledge of climate processes, paleoclimate evidence and the response of the climate system to increasing radiative forcing gives a best estimate of equilibrium climate sensitivity of 3°C, with a narrower range compared to AR5.

B.1 Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.

B.2 Many changes in the climate system become larger in direct relation to increasing global warming. They include increases in the frequency and intensity of hot extremes, marine heatwaves, and heavy precipitation, agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions, and proportion of intense tropical cyclones, as well as reductions in Arctic Sea ice, snow cover and permafrost.

B.3 Continued global warming is projected to further intensify the global water cycle, including its variability, global monsoon precipitation and the severity of wet and dry events.

B.4 Under scenarios with increasing CO2 emissions, the ocean and land carbon sinks are projected to be less effective at slowing the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere.

B.5 Many changes due to past and future greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible for centuries to millennia, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets and global sea level.

C.1 Natural drivers and internal variability will modulate human-caused changes, especially at regional scales and in the near term, with little effect on centennial global warming. These modulations are important to consider in planning for the full range of possible changes.

C.2 With further global warming, every region is projected to increasingly experience concurrent and multiple changes in climatic impact-drivers. Changes in several climatic impact-drivers would be more widespread at 2°C compared to 1.5°C global warming and even more widespread and/or pronounced for higher warming levels.

D.1 From a physical science perspective, limiting human-induced global warming to a specific level requires limiting cumulative CO2 emissions, reaching at least net zero CO2 emissions, along with strong reductions in other greenhouse gas emissions. Strong, rapid and sustained reductions in CH4 emissions would also limit the warming effect resulting from declining aerosol pollution and would improve air quality.

D.2 Scenarios with low or very low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (SSP1-1.9 and SSP1-2.6) lead within years to discernible effects on greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations, and air quality, relative to high and very high GHG emissions scenarios (SSP3-7.0 or SSP5-8.5). Under these contrasting scenarios, discernible differences in trends of global surface temperature would begin to emerge from natural variability within around 20 years, and over longer time periods for many other climatic impact-drivers (high confidence).

And there it is in all its naked truth. In Australia, the reaction is one of apathy. The government’s reaction is a mixture of boredom, insult and sarcastic yawning. If only we had a leader with the courage to take the lead and make the right decisions.

Reinstated Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has not changed his mind. He has rejected all calls for more vital targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He said that the latest United Nations report on catastrophic climate change wouldn’t change his mind without a cost of action.

In his typically incoherent mindset, the cost of doing nothing went over his head completely.

He wants some competent organisation to develop a costed plan for the government. He is part of the government responsible for putting the plan together, which has also escaped him.

Now with Joyce back in charge of the Nationals, we have a Coalition entirely at odds with each other on how to proceed with the problem. The climate lunatics who have never been able to admit that they were wrong and that Labor was right are still dictating policy in the Party Room.

The Guardian reported that Scott Morrison has already contradicted Barnaby Joyce saying that:

“His cabinet will formulate a plan to reach net zero emissions after the deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce declared climate action plans were formulated by agencies, not by politicians who lacked relevant expertise.”

The same edition of The Guardian also reported that Dr Jonathan Pershing, the deputy to US presidential climate envoy John Kerry, said:

“I think you can say, observing from the outside, that – as a G20 member, as a leading developed country – the commitments they made in Paris are not sufficient.”

What has been missing is a leader with the intestinal fortitude to put politics aside and tackle the crisis head-on.

An often-used lie is that we are a small player, and our efforts won’t make any difference. If you combine our efforts with countries of similar emissions, then totally we are of great significance.

In another lie, the Prime Minister said that he didn’t say in 2019 that Labor policies to reduce vehicle emissions would “end the weekend” he wasn’t opposed to electric vehicles, even though he told voters they were expensive, would not tow trailers or boats, or get Australians to their favourite camping spots.

The evidence of him saying it is in black and white wherever you care to look.

So Labor’s Shadow Climate minister Chris Bowen last Tuesday asked the Prime Minister if he believed no one would match Australia’s “ambition for a technology-driven solution” – why did he claim before the last election “that electric vehicles would end the weekend?”

Yet another lie is the one that Scott Morrison repeats all the time, insisting that we are meeting our commitments. It is a lie of omission because, without the credits allocated to us at Kyoto and a pandemic called COVID-19 that has reduced our production enormously, we would not.

As reported in the Australian Financial Review:

“Australia is the only country in the world openly planning to use Kyoto carryover credits to meet its Paris agreement targets.”

They accepted the science of a pandemic so quickly, so readily. Still, in their stupidity, the government cannot take climate change seriously, yet it has the power to end the world as we know it.

Labor was right and they were wrong.

Think about this: If we fail to act and disaster results, then massive suffering will have been aggravated by stupidity.

Before Australians vote at the next election, before they move the curtain that hides their vote from view, they should ask themselves: “What exactly was the point of this decade-long government?”

On Wednesday, 20 July, The Prime Minister did three radio interviews. During the third on Melbourne’s KIIS 101.1, he was asked by the host Jase Hawkins to apologise for the “nightmare” of the vaccine rollout.

“Can you honestly say to me that the government has taken accountability?” he said.

“Like, I have never heard the word ‘sorry’ – ‘guys you know what, sorry, we did screw it up, but we are getting it right now’.”

For the entirety of the interview, Jase tried to elicit the word “sorry” from the Prime Minister. It was like trying to extract blood from a stone. He did, however, manage an admission of sorts that he was responsible for Australia being last on a list of nations well ahead of us with their vaccination programs.

He eventually conceded this fact but still refused to apologise.

“I am accountable for the vaccination program and everything that has happened in it.

“And I am also accountable for fixing it, and that is what I am doing.”

In Mathew Matt 7:15-20 of the Christian Bible, the author speaks of false prophets, saying you can spot false prophets by their behaviour.

It is a scripture that the Prime Minister would be very familiar with.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing”) for inwardly, “they are ravenous wolves.”

So, who takes responsibility for all the mistakes, lies, deaths, illnesses, billions of dollars of losses, quarantine failures and mental illnesses?

“Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

The Prime Minister continuously blames others, misleads and tries to lie his way out of situations. He has played a political game from which we have inherited so much misery and pain. He is responsible for the bitter harvest we have reaped. Consequently, he will be called out for his indiscretions until the next election.

One of the perils of writing articles of condemnation is that the person in question – midway through your writing – does an about-face and apologises for his actions.

And this is what happened. Before I had finished, I was greeted with this headline on news.com “PM apologises for vaccine rollout failure, despite previously denying responsibility.”

The article essentially said that:

“Adelaide’s FIVEaa radio hosts David and Will told the PM: “The reason you’ve got 12 million people in lockdown is because you got it (the rollout) so wrong in the first place.”

“No, I don’t accept that,” Mr Morrison said.

The PM made similar deflections later on Wednesday on ABC radio:

“We’ve had our problems … many have been out of our control,” he insisted.

But after 24 hours of intense scrutiny, “Mr Morrison chose a different form of words on Thursday.”

Then is the space of 24 hours; on Thursday, he had changed his tune. He had been lying.

“I take responsibility for the things that haven’t gone as well as we have liked and I take responsibility for the things that have worked as well,” he said.

But when pressed by reporters on why he didn’t accept responsibility sooner, Mr Morrison said:

“I think I have been very clear that as Prime Minister I am responsible for the vaccination program and I also have been very clear that that responsibility means fixing and dealing with the problems that we’ve had.”

In a mood of utter disgust and dissatisfaction that what I had read could in any way be described as an apology, I went in search of some words of sincerity that might be apologetic.

The nearest I came across was in The Guardian:

“I’m certainly sorry we haven’t been able to achieve the marks that we hoped for at the beginning of this year,”

“Now hang on,” I thought to myself. Here we have arguably the worst public policy stuff up in the nation’s history, one that has cost many lives and will cost many more, and this is an apology. Simply outrageous

Perhaps in my haste to extract an apology from this buffoon purporting to be a leader, I have lost sight of the bigger picture. The need to have more people vaccinated. That this should be the main aim after all.

Or perhaps I find the apology empty because if he can find a few words representing an apology in this matter, he should be able to do so for the many other instances that require one.

For this reason, I cannot say that the apology offered is sufficient. It lacks grace and sincerity, and importantly it is devoid of anything that might restore the trust that has been lost.

It is difficult to restore trust in a leader who, when confronted by significant decisions (no matter the circumstances), allows his politics or religion to replace the common good.

We have so many lockdowns because Scott Morrison used his political judgment rather than his common sense and placed too much faith in AstraZeneca rather than putting in an order for Pfizer in July 2020.

He said that we were in the “front of the queue.”

When it became apparent that we were last, Mr Morrison changed his mind and said, “this isn’t a race.”

Contrary to the fact that we are in a race to save lives, Scott Morrison re-iterated in March and on no less than three other occasions, “it’s not a race, it’s not a competition.”

So, who do you think will win the upcoming federal election and why? When will it be?

Seriously, put aside your bias for a moment. Why? Because it is an opinion that is discriminatory and unbalanced with an absence of objectivity. Put aside your emotions because they cloud the issues. What is required here is pure intelligent logic, nothing more, nothing less.

What would influence your vote the most? Is it the state of the economy? Your allegiance to your party? Perhaps you favour the party with the highest ideals with the best social justice policies. Maybe you are an idealist and want more change, more reform.

As a woman (for those female readers), you are conceivably affronted by your treatment over many years, and the consequences still define you. Of vital importance to you might be the environment and the lack of any coherent policy.

Perhaps you are from the “a pox on both your houses” faction who wouldn’t vote for any of them.

There are many issues to consider. Loyalty to the party you have voted for all your life. It has a strong, almost sentimental appeal and doesn’t take much thought, but there is little logic. Your interest might be equality of opportunity and fairness. “That’s the party my dad voted for.”

Are you a voter driven by anger over a specific issue that affects you directly? Perhaps the depth of your pockets dictates what boxes you tick. Then again, you might be the type who seriously weighs up the talents or otherwise of the candidates in your electorate. Or, for ease of conscience, you vote as a block, husband and wife/partner in the belief that one of you knows better than the other. Or hubby knows best about these things.

You are offended by the corruption and immorality that exists in Government. However, you believe that “the devil you know is better the one you don’t.”

Contrary to that, you couldn’t care less, use a blunt pencil to mark the voting form because you have to get the shopping done before canteen duty at the footy club. It’s when you open the curtain at the poll booth that you give any thought to who you might vote for. Consequently, your vote is wasted because it is illegible, but you’re not too fussed. In the past two elections, over two million voters have decided not to vote at all.

Perhaps you prefer to vote for the party that delivers for the have nots, or conversely, you want the party that rewards those who have a go.

At this stage of the election cycle, the polls will only tell us how people are thinking, not who they will vote for. It is impossible to get a fix on the outcome of this election because, as is usual, the differences in opinion vary considerably.

Until the election campaigns start in earnest, most people will go about their daily business doing whatever they do, confirming the purpose for life without considering the reason for it – society ticks along doing what is needed to grow our food – feed our children.

There are those devoted to our entertainment so that we might obtain pleasure from it. Others volunteer so that it is organised. Yet others do good works because they yearn to help others like those seeking asylum but instead have looked rejection in the face. Others battle with the daily grind of survival, seeking the leftovers of the haves. Others will tell of their ordeals so that they might encourage hope.

The prosperous will record in glowing terms of their success as if it is available to all who seek.

This recipe contains all the ingredients that form what we call society. When they all come together, this amalgamation of skills, supporting others with philanthropy, determine what sort of society we are or should be.

I have left aside the two most essential ingredients in this recipe. The first is how we, as a nation, are led and, secondly, how we are governed. You are the unbiased judge on both. What do you think? We have not been gifted with good leadership since when?

In the recipe of good leadership, there are many ingredients. Popularity is but one. It, however, ranks far below getting things done for the common good.

This election is remarkable for many reasons. None more so than it will happen when the world is deciding, as COVID-19 recedes, just how it will change the function of Government. Probably in ways we never imagined.

Will, the people, choose the incumbent Morrison Government with a proven record of disasters over a long period, or will they seek a new Government to replace them. Or perhaps people of independent minds will decide the outcome.

Never have the people been entrusted with such an important decision.

This Government has a record of internal turbulence made worse by the return of Barnaby Joyce as leader of the Nationals. Will this incoherent loudmouth enhance the Coalition’s chances, or hinder them?

In a post-pandemic world, infighting over ideological issues that don’t help any of us might be a thing of the past, and the common good might become more critical. Many things will change, the jobs market, how the economy works and how we are governed.

In any case, if we are to save our democracy, we might begin by asking that, at the very least, our politicians should be transparent and tell the truth.

PS: Any perceived bias by me is countered by the 80 misdemeanours of this Coalition I have identified in my latest series of articles.

Continued from “If you wanted more proof of Coalition misdemeanours, here it is.”

As I finished writing my previous post, I had a somewhat disquieting feeling that I had sinned by omission. I was guilty of leaving off my already long list of Coalition misdemeanours, others that should have been included. For that, I apologise. So please do not treat the following as supplementary. On the contrary, they are of equal importance.

1 The Monthly reports that the appointment of Barnaby Joyce as Deputy Prime Minister:

“… is a painful reminder to women that men accused of inappropriate behaviour can still ascend to the highest offices in the land – after three years on the backbench, of course.”

2 Rachael Clun of the SMH reminds us that:

“Voters will face another “Mediscare”-style campaign at the next election as Labor latches onto the federal government’s planned reforms to Medicare to accuse it of cutbacks to the universal health system.

From July 1, more than 900 Medicare Benefits Scheme items will be changed, across orthopaedics, general surgery, cardiac surgical services, vascular, and general practice and primary care item numbers.”

3 Another one I missed was the QAnon mystery. Here is the obvious, which unfortunately has attracted zero interest from the mainstream media:

Niki Savva typically sensible today: “If the PM’s wife employs one of her best friends to work at the official residence, and the husband of said best friend has sunk into the dark world of QAnon, that is a story worth investigating.”https://t.co/C3tWRdcCqQ

— Louise Milligan (@Milliganreports) June 16, 2021

4 Indigenous Recognition as a Preamble in the Australian Constitution: Why doesn’t the Constitution recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples? Why the hold-up?

My case is now complete. I have presented the reader with 79 factual instances where this horrific Coalition government has been corrupt, broken established conventions or lied for their convenience.

So, before we go any further, it has to be said that there have been instances, or periods, on both sides of the political divide where governments have been corrupt or even worse. Perhaps there are even darker reasons that have never seen the light of day. Others may have never been exposed and never will but remain buried in the course of Australian political history.

In the comments section of my last post, “Yes Minister” wrote this:

“Whilst there is no argument that the incumbent LNP federal government fully deserves severe criticism, avoidance of mentioning the other political factions implies that they are immaculate, perfect and beyond reproach.”

In response, let me say that l do not mean by the omission of any other comparison to create the impression that one is better than the other. It is just that in 65 years of following Australian politics, I have never known a period of less accountability, less transparency, and less responsibility. My list covers three terms of parliament.

Had I started when Tony Abbott was appointed Leader of the Opposition, it would have made things even worse for the Coalition.

In 2011 we were engrossed in the Health Services Union expense’s affair. Then there was the Pink batt’s scandal.

On top of that, we had the James Ashby/Peter Slipper scandal:

“… a covert political conspiracy by the Coalition to bring down the Parliamentary Speaker, Peter Slipper, and through him the Federal Government of Australia.”

It could have been the most prodigious conspiracy in Australian history.

This was also shameful:

“Australian spy agencies attempted to tap the phones of high ranking Indonesian officials, including the president. Abbott refused to apologise.”

Corruption in Australian Water Holdings and the NSW ICAC investigation into Liberal Party fundraising.

Offshore detention crisis where asylum seekers were locked up indefinitely while their refugee status was being assessed. After nine years, some are still there.

At a press conference, Peter Dutton was overheard saying about the Pacific Islands that:

“Time does not mean anything when you are about to have water lapping at your door.”

The first Joe Hockey budget delivered by the Abbott government was seen as the worst in Australia’s history based on severe cuts to welfare and other social programs. It triggered a polling slump that Abbott struggled to recover from.

After controversially reinstating knighthoods, Abbott gave one of the first knighthoods to Prince Philip.

And this was disgusting:

“The governing Coalition supported a motion in the senate declaring “it’s ok to be white” and opposing the ‘deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on Western civilisation’.”

And how about Scott Morrison’s holiday and reactions to our bushfires last summer?

“Scott Morrison took a family holiday to Hawaii during one of the worst bushfire seasons on record. He returned only after significant public pressure.

When touring bushfire affected communities, many residents refused to engage with Morrison. On several occasions, Morrison forced a handshake on residents.

The government released an advertisement praising their bushfire response. However, the advertisement was attacked as being a party political ad paid for by taxpayers.”

And this piece of arrogance?

“Scott Morrison’s Mentor, Pastor Brian Houston, was invited to attend an official White House dinner. Houston is under investigation for covering up his father’s sex abuse.”

The primary reason for writing this series was to bring to people’s attention a list of facts that: a) drew attention to the workings of an egregious government; b) was to discuss what could be done to prevent such events in the future, and; c) was why people showed little interest in all this corruption, preferring to vote for the untouchable incumbent for their personal and often ambiguous reasons regardless of the party’s track record.

In any survey one reads, most people seem to be pure of heart and invariably are anti-corruption and against any form of those things that make for obnoxious governance.

However, when you ask whom they will vote for, they will not stray far away from the party they consistently voted for.

In plain English, people understand the truth of things, even the consequences of their party’s decisions but cannot bring themselves to stray from their allegiances. They will join the majority opinion against their party and then vote for them in an election.

So in listing all the misdemeanours, I could find I have answered question A. The answer to B is some form of National Corruption body constituted by people who are not presently politicians, and C lays at the feet of truth-telling politicians and a fourth estate with the same instincts.

On this, I agree with “Yes Minister.”

“That begs the question of creating a more expansive / more encompassing federal ICAC from which all three arms of government are excluded from administering / managing / nobbling, one that can hold politicians, bureaucrats and the judiciary to account since all three groups have demonstrated they are anything but honourable.”

Continued from Coalition misdemeanours: the list is long.

From Part 1, a refresher:

I have had the following list in my files for some time. They were first circulated early last year, and shared so widely that I am unable to determine neither its origin or creator, though I thank him or her for their efforts. There is enough meat in their list to make some salient observations.

I continue the list (with some extra of my own):

50 George Christensen charges taxpayers for domestic flights and ComCar trips that were part of his trips to known red-light districts of the Philippines. Then, when he is caught, he pays back $2,100 with no consequences.

51 Barnaby Joyce runs up a bill of $675,000 in 9 months in his role as Special Drought Envoy. When asked what he did in the roll, Joyce explained that he sent his “report” in the form of multiple text messages to Morrison; when The Guardian submitted a Freedom Of Information request for these texts, it was rejected because Morrison was too busy to retrieve them.

52 The Coalition awarded a $423million contract to run Manus Island detention facilities to a small and almost unknown company called Paladin as part of a “limited tender” process only meant to be used under exceptional circumstances. The company’s head office was a small shack on Kangaroo Island, and family members of the PNG Parliament were directly profiting from the contract. (Expanded from Point 18 in Part 1 of this list).

53 On two separate occasions, Peter Dutton personally intervened to have European au pairs allowed into the country after being initially refused by Border Force. The first was on behalf of an old Police colleague, the second on behalf of the AFL Chief Executive and son of a Liberal Party donor.

54 Barnaby Joyce’s ‘mistress’, Vikki Campion, was forced to leave her role as his staffer when rumours of their affair started causing tension with colleagues. As a result, she was given a plum $190,000 a year job with good friend Senator Matt Canavan despite Parliamentary rules prohibiting ‘partners’ positions.

55 The Coalition granted $200,000 to Foxtel’s Sky News to fund a new show featuring future Liberal Candidate Warren Mundine. The funding was taken from money budgeted for “Indigenous Advancement”. Inquiries later found that the grant had been officially approved before Mundine had even formally applied for it.

56 Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert charged taxpayers $2,000 a month for home internet, blaming “connectivity issues”. He was later forced to repay $38,000 in inappropriately claimed expenses but was not further investigated.

57 Barnaby Joyce approved a ‘dodgy’ $80million water buyback from a property owned by a Cayman Island’s based company that Energy Minister Angus Taylor used to be the Director of and his college mate now ran. Then, when Twitter users began to discuss it, his lawyers sent letters threatening legal action for defamation if they didn’t delete the tweets.

58 A property owned by Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s brother was alleged to have illegally burned 30 hectares of native grassland classified as endangered under existing environmental laws. After Angus Taylor personally intervened and met with then Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg about the investigation into his brother, the Government suddenly announced a review into the part of Commonwealth environment laws that deals explicitly with endangered native grasses.

And that is where the list that I acquired ends and mine begins. I have not placed my list in any particular order but just how they have come to mind.

1 The Labor Party instigated a price on carbon, and out of hand, the Coalition repealed it. It was arguably the worst policy decision by any Australian Government ever.

Almost a decade on, we are no further advanced. Writing in The Guardian, Katharine Murphy spells out the consequences:

“Over the past couple of months, the International Energy Agency has said fossil fuel expansion must end now if the planet is to address the climate crisis; there has been a G7 declaration (with Morrison in attendance) that public financing of unabated coal-fired power must stop this year and a pledge that net-zero emissions must be achieved by 2050 “at the latest.”

2 The former senior spy dubbed Witness K has been given a three month suspended sentence for conspiring to reveal classified information about an alleged spying operation during oil and gas treaty negotiations between Australia and East Timor. His lawyer Bernard Collaery awaits sentencing. Both were only ever guilty of telling the truth. That being that the Australian Government was guilty of espionage on its neighbour East Timor with the intent of robbing them of what was theirs. A secret trial like no other.

3 An international fail on diplomacy. Words are a beautiful means of communicating with others. How you use them with other countries takes great skill and an understanding beyond that of Scott Morrison.

Jumping to his defence comes David Speers:

“Prime ministers all say things they live to regret. It’s how they clean up the mess that inevitably follows that can be telling.”

4 Morrison refused:

“… to apologise to: Christine Holgate, the former Australia Post boss who says she was bullied, harassed and hounded out of a job, in part because of her gender and in part by the Prime Minister.”

5 Chris Graham writing in New Matilda broke the story that:

“On the day before the 2019 federal election, the Morrison government gave $15 million to one of its largest donors – the retail giant Wesfarmers, which had recently announced a half-yearly profit of $4.5 billion.”

6 Christian Porter remained in a job [but not for long] despite calls for an independent inquiry into historic rape allegations from several quarters, including the alleged victim’s own family. He pulled out of his defamation case and has to pay costs.

7 No use pretending otherwise. The Australian rollout of COVID-19 vaccines at 3% has been and continues to be a balls up of epic proportions, and the fault is undeniably that of Scott Morrison and his Government.

8 Scott Morrison and his Government stand accused of not having any empathy at all, and it is true. For example, they jailed the Biloela family on Christmas Island without regard to the cost, and they have been incarcerated there for three years. All because Morrison wants them to be seen as an example to others who might seek asylum here. How pathetic. “The Biloela family are just the latest unwilling participants trapped in Australia’s ongoing theatre of cruelty.”

9 Liberal Party MP Dr Andrew Lamming made headlines – albeit for the wrong reasons – after he allegedly bullied two female constituents online, including the wife of a local councillor.

10 Remember Sports Rorts? The Sydney Morning Herald’s article “Remember sports rorts? Here’s why we mustn’t forget that shameful episode” gives us an insight and a warning:

11 And then we come to Paul Fletcher, who:

“… previously served as cities and urban infrastructure minister – weighed into the controversy about the purchase of the so-called Leppington Triangle from a Liberal donor, explaining the decision was made by a departmental secretary due to a ‘highly inadequate brief’ that disguised its true value.”

12 So the Prime Minister didn’t know. Then he apparently changed his mind and admits he’d heard that allegations had been levelled against one of his ministers in a letter from friends of a now-deceased woman who had accused the unnamed minister of raping her in the late 1980s.

13 The Royal Commission into Aged Care said:

“Government did not prepare the sector well enough for the pandemic. In a damning report, the commission rejected the Government’s repeated claim it had a plan for aged care, which is a federal responsibility.

The commission said that now ‘is not the time for blame’ for what happened in aged care, where most of the Australian deaths have occurred – as at September 19, 629 out of 844 total deaths. The latest number of deaths from residential aged care is 665.”

14 Continuing the Government’s love of oil:

“The Australian Government’s support for the fossil fuel industry and lack of a credible climate policy has caused UNESCO to recommend the Great Barrier Reef be listed among World Heritage sites in danger, according to a new report.”

15 Arguably, the worst public policy failure in Australian political history is the introduction of Robodebt:

“The federal government’s robodebt scheme was a ‘massive failure in public administration’, according to the Federal Court judge who has approved a $112 million settlement over the “unlawful” program.

The Federal Court approved a $112 million robodebt settlement on Friday morning, with Justice Bernard Murphy criticising the Government over the ‘unlawful program’, labelling it a ‘shameful chapter’ in Australia’s social security history.

The Judge also said it should have been obvious to the public servants and Ministers presiding over the program that it was faulty.”

And that:

“In 2018, the Senate was provided with figures showing that, from July 2016 to October 2018, 2030 had died after receiving a robodebt notice. Morrison had his name written all over this policy.”

We must never forget the damage caused by this program. Never. It deserves to be the albatross around Scott Morrison’s neck.

* * * * *

My last post included many accusations of pathetic governance. This one continued down that path adding more facts about Coalition corruption or misdemeanours. In my next post I shall summarise what I have written and pose just what dangers these facts might do to Australia in the future.

Well, I don’t know about you. Still, I’m just about exhausted and I haven’t mentioned the NDIS, the backgrounding on (in this case roughly translated as bad-mouthing) of Higgins’ partner, domestic violence, a failed NBN, racism, transparent government, and the good old-fashioned ‘fair go.’ Then follows discrimination, the destruction of our democracy, and lying in all its guises.

In my previous post I mentioned that I would post a list of Coalition misdemeanours over their term in office. There are many, which to most of us would come as no surprise as to the depths of the Coalition’s dirty dealings and the realisation of how rotten these two parties are.

I have had the following list in my files for some time. They were first circulated early last year, and shared so widely that I am unable to determine neither its origin or creator, though I thank him or her for their efforts. There is enough meat in their list to make some salient observations.

The list contains allegations of government corruption and misdeeds covering the early part of the Abbott/Turnbull/ Morrison era. You be the judge.

It is just the start. My next post will cover the latter part of Turnbull’s tenure and Morrison’s impact. Hang onto your seat.

1 Angus Taylor and Barnaby Joyce were involved in a shady water buyback scheme that involved channelling money through the Cayman Islands

2 Andrew Robb was taking an $880k/yr job with a donor before even leaving politics (alleged).

3 Christopher Pyne took a job with E&Y straight after politics – despite the fact he was the Defence Minister, E&Y had been awarded $21 million in contracts to do consulting work for the Defence force.

4 Julie Bishop was appointed to the board of Palladium after exiting politics – a company that profits from foreign affairs (her previous portfolio).

5 Barnaby Joyce misused his travel allowance to stay with Vicki Campion.

6 Julie Bishop and her $450k Chinese sponsored “Glorious Foundation.”

7 Former Liberal President Shane Stone was paid $500k per year to oversee flood recovery efforts in rural Queensland. This salary is nearly the same as our Prime Minister (not illegal, of course).

8 George Christensen was accused of spending 300 days in the Philippines during the last few years – despite claiming to represent the Australian people.

9 Fraser Anning claimed $35k for family travel expenses on 44 trips between January and December 2018. Then there was his recent problem with women.

10 Sussan Ley popping up to the Gold Coast on travel allowance and ‘accidentally’ buying a $700k apartment at the same time.

11 Failure to address housing inequality – when at the time 226 federal MPs owned 524 properties, there’s zero incentive to address the problem

12 Barnaby Joyce free rent from a donor. (See above).

13 Billions of dollars in foreign aid go to Indonesia – they, in turn, purchase billions of dollars’ worth of military helicopters and now consider bidding for the 2032 Olympic Games!

14 Joe Hockey owns more than $1 million worth of shares in Helloworld – whose share price goes up 164% in 4 years since being awarded a string of government contracts worth $1 billion. Talk about insider trading. Mattias Cormann, not realising at the time that his family got a free holiday to Singapore – only weeks after Helloworld was awarded a new government contract.

15 Barnaby Joyce purchases property with insider knowledge of the rail route.

16 The continued protection of individuals’ tax-free status with millions of dollars in tax – whilst the lowest paid people in society struggle to get any meaningful wage increases due to how the official CPI calculation has been corruptly manipulated to keep wages low artificially.

17 Matt Canavan failing to declare property interests.

18 Peter Dutton awards a $423m contract through a ‘limited tender’ process to Paladin to run Manus Island – a company his sister, works for that has no previous experience in running such facilities.

19 Sale of Darwin’s port to a Chinese company four days after $40k donation to LNP. (Alleged).

20 $30m to Foxtel for women’s sports, while cutting $84m from the ABC (later added another $10 million).

21 David Feeney failing to declare $2.3m house

22 Choppergate by Bronwyn Bishop.

23 Sussan Ley $21k on cabs in the USA in one week.

24 Tony Abbott’s repeated expenses that have needed to be repaid, e.g. 2016 total expense claims equivalent to 37 years of Newstart payments

25 Tony Abbott’s daughter acquired a $37,000 unadvertised “scholarship.”

26 Arthur Sinodinos’s inability to recall anything under oath at NSW ICAC. (He is now Ambassador to the USA).

27 Roman Quaedvlieg’s (Border Force) $500k nine months paid leave.

28 Failure to fix significant scale tax evasion – why do so many massive businesses persist with Australia if they collectively lose trillions here? (Good question).

29 Michaelia Cash was leaking to the media before raids on AWU – and then spending nearly $1m of taxpayers dollars trying to defend her behaviour.

30 Similar for NBN raids on Stephen Conroy’s office.

31 Sarina Russo receives $754m of contracts in return for a $20k donation to LNP in 2010 (Alleged).

32 NBN issues multi-million FTTC contract to NetComm, whose chairman is also a director of NBN co. (I’m unaware of this one).

33 George Brandis allegedly forced Justin Gleeson’s resignation as Solicitor General, lying to a Senate enquiry.

34 Steve Irons “electorate business” in Gold Coast spending $2k for the wife to attend with him. (I’m unaware of this one.)

35 Georgina Downer was handing over big cheques for government grants in her ‘electorate’ despite not even being an elected member of Parliament.

36 Stewart Robert’s inappropriate behaviour on a trip to China.

37 The Government gave $640k to Bjorn Lomborg for a climate-denying book.

38 Eric Hutchinson appointed to $160k job after losing his seat in 2016 election

39 George Brandis appointing his son’s lawyer to $370k/yr job (Firewall).

40 Craig Laundy failing to declare businesses on a register of interests.

41 $444m to The Great Barrier Reef Foundation with no tendering – straight into the pockets of directors with links to Liberal National Party.

42 Cabinet Minister Kelly O’Dwyer told colleagues the Liberals are widely regarded as “homophobic, anti-women, climate-change deniers” during a crisis meeting of the federal Victorian Liberal party.

43 A $4.6 billion buy off deal was struck with Catholic and independent schools, heading off another potential election-losing issue.

44 Mr Morrison flagged Australia’s Israeli embassy’s shifting to Jerusalem to win backing from Jewish investment bankers to keep funding Australia’s record debt.

45 Then Finance Minister Mathias Cormann charged taxpayers $4,400 to take his wife on a romantic beach getaway on her birthday. More recently was his use of a government aircraft to fly around the world to secure a job with the OECD.

46 ‘Nick’ Zhao, a Chinese born Australian, goes to ASIO telling them he’s been offered $1million from the Chinese Government to run as a Liberal Party candidate and then infiltrate the Australian Parliament as a Chinese Spy. He then turns up dead in a Melbourne hotel room in March. Enter Gladys Liu, the Liberal Candidate with a host of concerning connections to the Chinese Government who earns Liberal pre-selection thanks to miraculously raising a million dollars in donations. Fairfax then discovered a photo of Liu at her home with Nick Zhao in the background. Gladys is now the Liberal Member for Chisolm.

47 Liberal Candidates Gladys Liu and Josh Frydenberg both have signs in Mandarin at polling booths in the colours of the Australian Electoral Commission branding telling Chinese citizens how to vote (by putting one next to the Liberal Candidate).

There is no Liberal Party branding on the sign. However, liberal officials admit in court that the characters were designed to convey the appearance of official electoral commission material.

48 Angus Taylor writes a public letter, published in The Daily Telegraph, to Sydney Mayor Clover Moore criticising her for her millions of dollars of domestic travel. However, the document he quotes is a forgery.

Taylor refuses to disclose where he got the fake document and denies all Freedom of Information requests from the media that might give insight.

49 Fake ‘How To Vote’ cards were handed out in Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson designed to trick Greens Voters into voting for Dutton.

Fortunately many of the names on the list are no longer Members of Parliament!

Anyway, that’s where I will round it off for the first part of this most revealing list. (And one to keep in mind prior to the next election). The next post will further reaffirm my contention that Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison presided over the most rotten Governments in living memory.

I’m inclined to believe that the next election is more likely to be about Morrison than Albanese. If that seems odd to you, then stay with me. In the most recent US Presidential Election, Senator Biden used a low-key strategy focused not on himself but President Trump’s record, policies, actions, offensiveness, and lying.

In other words, he made Trump the issue, just as Howard did with Latham, and Morrison with Shorten. It was not about himself. This strategy proved to be most effective, and Biden went on to win by 6 million votes. And Howard then Morrison.

Ostensibly what Albo has to do is be himself and point out until boredom sets in the many varied and costly mistakes the Coalition has made. None more so than the Robodebt fiasco which cost the taxpayer an estimated 2 billion dollars. Thus far, nobody is responsible for probably the most extraordinary act of culpability the nation has ever seen, and it was the Prime Minister’s idea and responsibility. Nothing short of a Royal Commission is required to flush out those responsible for this crime against the citizens of Australia.

By playing low key, Albo, in my opinion, will place the focus entirely on Morrison, his policies, his record and his character. Not a bad strategy when you bundle up almost three terms of plain awful governance. When you look back over the Coalition’s three terms in office, you cannot be but shocked at the extent of their incompetency.

The sheer length of their horrifying governance and the volume of their inhumaneness is what Albo must attack. It would stretch the length of any campaign trail and give forth a constant stream of scandal, corruption, and bad management.

For me, it’s got to be, “Has your life improved under the Coalition government?” Or “Look at the performance of this government, it has been atrocious – scandal after scandal, numerous bad policies and the absence of any humanity where citizens can feel their government has their back and won’t abandon them.”

My premises are not based on wishful thinking but on the belief that there is always a point when all the wrong you created eventually catches up. And there is ample evidence of that now.

It seems to me that for some time now, the electorate has been giving Morrison more than just a cursory going over. Instead, they have become more analytical of the man and his policies.

An election might have been pencilled in for the last quarter of 2021, but a string of atrocious scandals, decisions, and massive mishandling of COVID-19 vaccinations may have forced them to pull out until the first quarter of 2022.

Indeed, the Coalition will start favourite mainly because – ironically – of their handling the pandemic. Early on, there is no doubt that the government will inherit the favour of the people (even though the states bore the heavy burden), however, all that will be negated by its woeful handling of the vaccine distribution. There is great angst in the community against its inability to carry out the promises it proposed.

Another societal or phycological mismanagement that could cost them dearly is the refusal of the Prime Minister to release the Tamil family detained for two years on Christmas Island.

We have gone past the used by date of “stop the boats” and “on-water matters” of the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison era. Past the scaremongering of “Muslims are coming to get you,” and “marriage inequality.” And beyond, second-rate politicians like Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack warn against federal Liberal MPs’ calls for the Biloela Tamil family detained on Christmas Island to return home to Queensland.

The treatment of this family and others is so unrepresentative of our instincts as global citizens that it makes my blood boil. It infuriates my understanding of why we vote to retain such a Prime Minister. Perhaps he should consult his wife Jen as he did about rape to determine the damage incarceration can do to children roughly the same age as his own.

This story has echoed worldwide and reminded us of how cruelly Australia practises its deterrence – the more stubborn, the better. My view is that the world is sick to death of the far-right phonies who pretend to know what is best for us when it is really them that know who governments can do best for.

David Littleproud (Deputy leader of the National Party) said on morning ABC News (14 June) that a solution for the Biloela family would be found because, ultimately, we are a fair people. I wouldn’t dispute that it’s just that we have a dreadfully unfair government.

Cartoon by Alan Moir (moir.com.au)

As I write, our media suggests that the government is on the verge of announcing a solution. However, even if they do, a residue of the stench of the government’s inaction will follow them into the election.

The people have had enough of this gratuitous governance for almost a decade now, and may I suggest people want more truth, more transparency, more honesty, more of all the things in the ingredients in the recipe of good governance? But, in reality, all the things this government is not.

There is nothing new about scandals; they have been part of the political landscape for as long as I can remember. But unfortunately, so frequently do they occur that if you blink, you might miss them.

Here is one, now almost all but forgotten:

In December 2019, contrary to the rules on the use of commonwealth aircraft, the Prime Minister and the Treasurer billed taxpayers almost $5,000 to take the prime minister’s private jet from Canberra to Sydney for Lachlan Murdoch’s 2018 Christmas party. There was little public outcry, no remorse, no embarrassment, and it scarcely registered as a scandal? It’s that easy to get away with.

In February of this year, Nick Feik in The Monthly wrote of this scandal-ridden government that:

“Scandals are nothing new in Australian politics, but the way they have piled up in the recent years of Coalition government points to a critical shift in our governance. Acts of malfeasance and impropriety have become more than isolated episodes, more than egregious slips or embarrassing failures. Unexplained and unresolved, they are open wounds on the body politic, overlapping and now chronic.”

Of course, the next election and the accompanying campaign policies will carry the burden of climate change. But, whilst an agreement by the G7 last weekend commits members to phase out government support for fossil fuels, our Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack was singing the praises of coal, reinforcing yet again his government’s commitment to the industry.

That the Coalition remains in dispute of the science is a given. That they intend to do little to improve the planet’s health must be a feature of Labor’s campaign. But just as public opinion is now firmly behind a world without fossil fuels, it would be a significant mistake not to take an unshakeable commitment to renewables to the election.

There is a mountain of material to attack the Coalition on appalling governance alone. But, further, I believe that the electorate has realised that corrupt liars and fools govern us.

The Australian people are waking up to the fact that government affects every part of their lives, and should be more interested. As a result, the political malaise that has been so deep-seated is beginning to disintegrate, and the government is being judged with reinvigorated minds.

“Hey, these guys are corrupt,” you will hear them say.

PS: In its wisdom (or cruelty), the government granted the Tamil family community detention, which in reality is no decision at all, just an extension of its problem (or misery). This should be of no surprise given their attitude to such matters.

I believe that l have not fully covered my argument in this piece, so l will continue on this theme in my next post. Your comments might be of some assistance.

It is impossible to imagine that the Australian people would be so gullible as to elect for a fourth term a government that has performed so pathetically in the first three. But they might.

At this stage of the electoral cycle you would have to say that the incumbent government has more than an even chance of being elected. I say this because of the closeness of the polls (and recent elections), and incumbent governments historically always come from behind.

But how do I conclude this when the facts suggest that the government has been an abject failure. The answer, I believe, can be found in our collective complacency or the “she’ll be right, mate” attitude of the Australian people. No matter the seriousness of the problem, in the end, “she’ll be right.” Things sort of work themselves out, mate.

We now accept that politicians these days are corrupt. Once, we trusted them and just got on with our lives. Now we don’t trust them but turn a blind eye to their shenanigans.

Most Australians have allowed themselves to be dumbed down to the point that they are in a state of political unconsciousness. Manipulated to the point of boredom, where more than half of us just go with the flow, re-elect the same idiots and give no thought to the consequences. We can then get on with it. Whatever “it” is.

The fact is we are so bloody compliant, so uncomplaining, so unwilling to take a chance on using our brains. And we are now showing this same indifference with vaccinations against COVID-19.

The pity is that these very same people are oblivious to what is at stake. But what if 20% of eligible voters of the swinging type just stopped and thought about what 9 years of conservatism had bequeathed us.

I confess I have never understood peoples’ unthinking attitude toward the gift that our democracy gives us – the privilege of voting.

I also confess I simply don’t understand how people would vote for anyone who had knowingly tried to put one over on the people by claiming, for example, expenses they were not entitled to.

And I also confess I don’t know how a politician who has been having an affair with one of his employees can be re- elected not once, but twice, and I fail to comprehend how so many mistakes and stuff-ups seems to have such little effect on voter’s intentions.

Has our social morality sunk to such an unfathomable depth?

I don’t understand how our largest banks can be so profoundly censured by a Royal Commission yet continue on their merry way with just a slap on the backside.

Why on earth don’t dried up river banks, dead fish and the Prime Minister’s response to bush fires and vaccines have little effect on his popularity?

How is it possible for a government to survive when aged care, domestic violence and women’s stature have been manipulated to the point of unmitigated sexism?

Why is it that while many are in a state of shock over these matters, the majority take such a layback attitude?

For example, I find it difficult to understand how the people of this nation could vote to re-elect existing members who are plainly degenerate. They are so devious, suspicious and corrupt that their parliamentary behaviour could only be described as a sort of sick moral degeneracy that saturates this government.

I fail to see how we could deliberately vote once again for a government that, by its actions, supports gas and dirty coal and tells lies about our emissions that are blatantly false. It is enough to make one weep in shame, and my temptation is to again list in total all of the government’s indiscretions.

And what a stuff up the vaccine rollout has proven to be.

But those who earnestly follow me on Facebook will know what I’m talking about. From Robodebt to sports rorts so on and so on. Ultimately it is Scott Morrison who is responsible for all of these events. His characterless unempathetic Christian leadership has done nothing to repair the damage done by his two predecessors and himself.

Fortunately, as I was writing, I came across the latest Guardian Essential poll, Tuesday 25May. I think it helps the points I make:

“The latest survey of 1,100 respondents suggests most voters would be irritated if Scott Morrison went to an election later this year rather in the first half of 2022, with 61% characterising any post-budget sprint to the ballot box as political opportunism, and 39% saying that would be reasonable because a lot has changed since the last federal election.

Only 25% of respondents said they were confident the government had a clear plan [for the vaccine rollout].

A further 42% suspected the government did have a plan for the vaccine rollout but believed it had been poorly communicated, while 32% were not confident a plan existed.

Only 21% of the sample believed there was a federal plan on quarantine facilities, while 79% thought either there was a plan but poor communication (38%) or no plan at all (41%).

[On] deficit reduction, 16% felt Morrison had a clear plan, while 84% thought there was a plan but poor communication (43%) or feared no plan (41%).

The idea of a Coalition plan for emissions reduction generated the highest level of scepticism from survey respondents (47% of the sample saw no plan, while 35% saw a poorly communicated plan and 18% felt they could divine a strategy).

Only 22% believed there was a clear plan to reform the Aged Care sector, while 39% thought there was a plan but poor communication, and 39% lacked confidence there was a plan.

On Australians returning from Covid-ravaged India, the latest poll suggests voters are restive about domestic quarantine facilities, with 63% of the sample agreeing with the statement, ‘It should be the federal government’s responsibility to build and manage quarantine facilities across the country’, and 37% believing that should be a state responsibility.”

So, at the risk of repeating myself, I once again ask that straightforward question: “How is it possible that the Australian people would be so gullible as to elect for a fourth term a government that has performed so pathetically in the first three?”

But they might.

With the next election possibly but a few months away, it seems highly unlikely that the Coalition will bring any legislation into the House for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission. So pathetic was the last attempt by Christian Porter that it was laughed out of the Chamber.

Be it not for me to say that all the participants in our political system are lilly-whites, but conservatives seem most prone to the evils of the corrupt deal.

It is now two and a half years ago that they promised to legislate for a Commission, and it seems they will renege on it.

There are three possibilities as to why. One is that COVID-19 has made it too difficult to draw up complex legislation. Two might be that it would incriminate the Prime Minister and Cabinet in significant corruption. And three is that there is no money in the budget for such a commission and its long-term costs.

This flies in the face of:

“… the “government’s claim that it understands the need to prioritise transparency and accountability in public life and implement policies to achieve such an outcome.”

Suppose it is true that the Coalition doesn’t plan to take a policy to the next election. In that case, it may fly in the face of public opinion and at the same time create the impression that they are scared of doing so because such a commission may want to look at Coalition corruption during its term in office.

As I see it, it is a win-win for Labor. The government cannot produce legislation that will eliminate enquiries into Coalition dealings such as land deals, aged care, political donations, sports rorts, Robodebt and a host of others that would pass the Senate. If we don’t end up with a commission, the government will still have to explain why.

And if Morrison thinks he can explain it away with a few glib lies, then he will be overlooking what is now a long-term, deep-rooted desire for an effective federal anti-corruption body.

Dr Colleen Lewis, Honorary Professor, Australian Studies Institute, ANU, is certain that:

“This matter will not go away; indeed, the reverse is the case. In several Australian states, the establishment of an effective anti-corruption model became a significant election issue. Those who care about accountability, openness and transparency at the federal level, and there are many, will ensure that it is front and centre in the forthcoming federal election.

It is time for the government to admit that the Porter-promoted CIC model is so badly flawed as to be an embarrassment to any government that professes to be concerned about effective accountability in the Australian public sector. It is not too late for it to right the wrongs of the past 2 ½ years.”

In October of 2020, Scott Morrison was asked by Anthony Albanese a question about the delay in the legislation. It was obvious that Morrison had zero interest, deflecting the urgency:

The PM says, in relation to where is ICAC: "I was not going to have one public servant diverted from the task [of managing Covid]". Not sure this is a winning line #qt #auspol

— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) October 21, 2020

At the time, I wrote that:

“In truth, what these answers delivered was confirmation of an ongoing capacity to lie to the Australian people. The government has been conducting business as usual since the outbreak began. Part of that normality has been legislation to overhaul the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and the foreign veto power proposal plus powers to remove mobile phones from asylum seekers legislation. Add to these other examples, like doubling university fees for some future humanities students.”

I also purported that:

“Like many other readers of this site, I feel that for many years now, the integrity of our politics has been gradually sold out by a bunch of corrupt politicians more intent on feathering their nests than working for the people. We are sick to death of the travel rorts, the living away from home allowance, donation rorts and ministers when they retire, walking into senior positions with companies in the same field.”

I could keep going, but I think you get my drift. All of these everyday pieces of legislation have been worked on while at the same time coping with an awful pandemic. With a list of alleged corruption growing longer by the day

And I repeat an earlier claim:

“If all the LNP errors, rorts and corrupt activities during the Morrison government’s tenure were lumped in the same basket as corruption and looked at retrospectively, then an Integrity Commissioner would have years of work.”