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Democracy Tested

The only defence that we, the people, have against an arrogant leader who is thumbing his nose at our democratic arrangements is by shining a light into dark corners and ensuring that our democracy has the ability to assert the power of those democratic fundamentals.

Former High Court Judge The Hon Virginia Bell AC has done a thorough investigation into the behaviour of former prime minister Scott Morrison in appointing himself minister of various government departments and then failing to make his actions public, even to the extent of not informing the ministers that were already appointed to administer those departments.

The Report notes at 217:

‘It is a serious deficiency in governance arrangements that Mr Morrison was able to be appointed to administer five departments of State (in addition to PM&C) without notification of the fact of the appointments to the Parliament or the public and in the case of the Departments of Health, Finance, Home Affairs and the Treasury, without notification to the Department or the other Ministers appointed to administer the Department. There is controversy with respect to the responsibility for this state of affairs.’

It goes on to say:

‘… it is unclear that those within PM&C with knowledge of the appointments gave thought to the fact that they had not been made public. It was apparent by 2021 that the mechanism of appointing Mr Morrison to administer additional departments of State had come to be employed for reasons having little if any connection to the pandemic. It was also apparent that these appointments were not being made public, albeit that it did not occur to anyone in PM&C that Mr Morrison was keeping the appointments secret from his Ministers. While it is troubling that by the time of the 2021 appointments, Mr Gaetjens did not take up the issue of the secrecy surrounding them with Mr Morrison and firmly argue for their public disclosure, the responsibility for that secrecy must reside with Mr Morrison.

Morrison declined the invitation to give evidence at the enquiry.

Our democracy has the safeguard of our Constitution and inherent in that is the separation of powers but it also relies heavily on conventions implicit in which is the goodwill and the veracity of those we elect to govern us. But, as Morrison was able to demonstrate, if those in power and those serving them wish to subvert the democratic safeguards there is little to stop them.

The Report is here in full together with the recommendations and whilst it doesn’t seek to criticise our Governor General, the King’s representative, it may be that there has been a bit too much karaoke going on in Government House and not enough thought of ‘We the people’.

 

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17 comments

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  1. Phil Pryor

    I keep thinking of treason, sedition, betrayal, guillotines, nooses, walls and squads, all fitting in perfectly civilised nations, though the USA seems to favour injections. Conservative political perversion and self focus is well beyond remedial psychiatric treatment and also forgiveness and toleration. A lazy, unsuccessful career dud gets right up to where he betrays us all.

  2. New England Cocky

    The Scummo Secret Ministries matter must be the most threatening attack on democracy since the 1933 German Parliament fire that resulted in the government of the national socialists.

    Without any doubt what-so-ever, Scummo was quietly and democratically establishing the foundation for the regally endorsed first Liarbral Hell$inger$ theocratic dictatorship in Australia. Worst, Scummo was aided & abetted by Betty Windsor’s political agent (AGAIN!! Remember John Curr’s role in the Whitlam Dismissal 1975, see Jenny Hocking research).

    There can be little doubt that the GG failed in his duty of care, as did the Head of PM&C the Great Manipulator Gaetjens.

    Five/seven ministries were conferred by the GG with a further two, Agriculture & Energy(?), considered by not acted upon.

    Not a word of dissent from Murdoch mainstream media-ocrity …. which had betrayed Australian voters long ago.

    So, where to from here? Obviously the complicity of the GG makes his position untenable and he must resign yesterday. The push for an Australian Republic having an Australia borne Head of State must be able to make some ground on this involvement.

    Scummo must be called before the Bar of the Reps to explain his actions, then sacked by the House of Reps for repeatedly misleading Parliament by failing to declare publicly his appointment of himself to these Ministerial positions. Ideally, all the usual publicly funded financial advantages of being a former PM must be cancelled and ideally the entire family sent to Manus or Nauru for the term of their natural lives. Scummo enjoys tropical climes as seen in his tropical family holiday during the 2019-2020 bushfire emergency.

    Most importantly, the public policy response to these actions must be very hard to discourage other pollies having an inflated opinion of their worth, from repeating this disgusting deception.

  3. Canguro

    Cocky, they banished Napoleon to the island of Elba, then after his escape and subsequent surrender to the British, again exiled, this time to St Helena island in the south Atlantic. So it’s not without precedent. A very fitting suggestion, that Scummo should be packed off to Manus or Nauru… whichever is the worse is the logical destination. Insisting that his family accompany him is a little harsh; they may have supported him during his mad reign but they aren’t really all that deeply embedded in any conspiratorial sense, Jen & the girls… they’ve suffered enough, one might argue. But let him take his ukelele, bible, hell, even his Hawaiian lei if he insists. That’s it, no other creature comforts; no phone, no internet. It’ll be good for him, good medicine, plenty of time to reflect on his arseholery before he succumbs to beri beri or dengue fever or some other deserved slow lingering demise.

  4. Terence Mills

    Canguro

    But he might get sanctuary from Nauru or Manus and end up in New Zealand and as Spudley has noted, this could be a back door for undesirables into the wide brown land.

  5. Clakka

    As the putative Ruler of the Universe, send him, sans banjo, on a slow solo journey to Milliways (the Restaurant at the End of the Universe) to commune with the captain of the Golgafrinchans, and contemplate undrinkable tea and the Ultimate Question.

  6. GL

    “Morrison declined the invitation to give evidence at the enquiry.” Of course he did because he’s a craven coward!

  7. Raymond Tinkler

    Replying to Clakka:

    Putative Ruler of the Universe eh? I can see that you are of similar mind to me as far as the ambitions of the said (claimed) chosen one. My take was that he eventually wants to sit at the right hand of God, having already deposed the incumbent there. The aforementioned, if that occurrence happening, must be made aware of what he said when wrapping his arms around Malcolm Turnbull’s shoulders before deposing him.

  8. Raymond Tinkler

    Replying to GL

    He was pleading the 5th.

  9. paul walter

    We must not forget the paradigm offered though Stuart Robert, another earnest “Christian”.

  10. Terence Mills

    Virginia Bell wrote to Morrison on September 19 to “seek his assistance” with the inquiry. She proposed a meeting to hear directly his “account of the facts and circumstances” of his ministerial appointments, saying she could meet him in either Sydney or Canberra on any date in the three weeks from September 26.

    He declined to meet with her.

  11. New England Cocky

    There is growing doubt that Scummo will ever be held accountable for his ”Multiple Ministries” attempt to establish the regally endorsed democratic Hell$ingers theocratic dictatorship under Chairman Scummo The Inspired by The Eagle. This reasonable assumption is endorsed by Albanese refusing to pursue the matter almost as a matter of self-protecton.

    Shane Dowling at Kangaroo Court of Australia analyses the evidence in this article:

    Scott Morrison gives Australia the middle finger with the help of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

  12. New England Cocky

    @ Canguro: 1) The English ”fixed” their napoleon problem with poison.
    .
    2) Your concern for ”Jen & the girls” overlooks the Nuremberg Trials that disallowed the plea that ”I was only following orders”.
    .
    3) Scummo plays/played the ukulele with no talent (as expected).
    .
    4) There would be no modern creature comforts on Manus or Nauru, just as the legal refugees were mistreated.
    .
    5) Australian voters would better spend their time comprehending the role of Betty Windsor’s GG, David Hurley, and whether this second betrayal of the Australian people by the GG is sufficient to immediately take Australia into the 21st century as the Australian Republic having an Australian-borne Head of State.

  13. andy56

    our democracy, world wide actually , has been on a downward slide for a long time. The conservative are are the real villians. From their indifference to social problems to their total dishonesty when in government. Their willingness to do the immoral to win office. The tamper comes to mind and reds under the beds in menzies time. Scotts on water secrecy and willingness to sacrifice refugees is just more of the same. Why should he have treated anything else he touched with empathy. Winning was everything. And then to top it off he had the emperor fixation….”nobody understood me”….yea right.
    Democracy is a failure because we enable the stupid and narcistic to govern us. So we gotta work at making it better. Lets take the incentives out for these people . I dont see much progress on this front.

  14. Clakka

    There will always be opportunities for engorgement by the craven and mendacious as long as the sky pilots set the scene with their devious schemes. Any excuse a skulker and whisperer could ever need being fed behind the cloisters by collection and regurgitation of every excretion of guilt. In a divine coup, for a tax of gold and silence, followed by a blessing.

    Bulgakov (for his time) nailed it, yet the sky pilots and their blessed emissaries gulled by power and the letting of blood, closed ranks – as they do, and so it goes.

    And for those tired of the gods but keeping a toe in, there’s a global free-for-all proliferation of space invaders, inventive absolvers, prestidigitators and blood letters readily available to wipe clean the excretions of the guilty via the sanctimony of the incorporated marketplace. Industrialised infamy Mud Rock style.

    How ever can on mind one’s own business?

  15. New England Cocky

    @ GL: ”The core values of the party” are practiced by Beetrooter, the Nazional$ representative in New England. Let’s see …. adultery, alcoholism, amorality, bigotry, cronyism, egotism, misogyny, racism to identify the most obvious ”party values”.

  16. Terence Mills

    The Liberals don’t want Morrison to leave the parliament. Not because he has a contribution to make or that he doesn’t want to go or that the electorate in his seat of Cook benefit from his continued presence in the parliament.

    Their concern is solely that his resignation would bring about a by-election which they would probably lose.

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