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.
The list [from Part 1] contains allegations of government corruption and misdeeds covering the early part of the Abbott/Turnbull/ Morrison era.
It is just the start. My next post [today’s post] will cover the latter part of Turnbull’s tenure and Morrison’s impact.
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:
“These are the lessons of the abuse of the $100 million Community Sports Infrastructure grants program. The Sports Rorts program offers a prism illuminating all that is wrong with the Government.”
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.
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My thought for the day
Current experience would suggest that the Australian people need to take more care when electing its government.
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