What’s The Point, Asks Waleed Aly, Pointlessly…
Well, it seems we have a strange way of looking at things all of a sudden.
Imagine that you go to the police to report a person is accused of misappropriation of funds from your organisation and rather than investigate, the constable asks a few questions and asks you, “What’s the point of the investigation?”
You reply that you’d like to find out how it happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again, to which the constable tells you: “Yeah, but he doesn’t work there anymore. Aren’t you just being vindictive? I think you should get on with your life and not worry about the past!”
The whole Robodebt Royal Commission response is rather interesting if you take a step back. Okay, any investigation into Scott Morrison appointing himself into everything but the seat on the right hand of God, which he considered but found it was taken in a bigger example of nepotism than the Trump family. However, the idea that the Robodebt Royal Commission is all about revenge on Scott Morrison is one of those times that the media seem to be saying the quiet bit out loud.
I mean, how do we know that Scotty from Secrecy was the one behind it all? Couldn’t it have been another minister? Or a public servant who simply changed the process without a lot of fanfare, so that the various ministers didn’t notice?
Well, of course not, we all know it was the ex-PM’s brainchild. It was just never explicitly stated that this absurd and immoral way of calculating a potential debt was down to Morrison.
As far as the ridiculous idea that it was Labor that started matching tax data with Centrelink payments, it needs to be pointed out that there’s nothing wrong with that as a starting point, but it needs to be checked to make sure that it does, in fact, show a debt that should be repaid.
To use an analogy here:
- There is a police report that a person has gone missing and somebody was seen bundling a body into the boot of a white car.
- A patrol car pulls over a white car in the area and asks to check the boot. There is no body. The police takes some DNA samples. and ask a few questions and decide that there is no evidence linking them to the missing person. This is equivalent to what Labor did.
- Another patrol car pulls up a white car. The boot is checked. There is no body. The police then ask the driver if he can prove that there was never any body in the car. The driver asks how he can do that. The police decide that this isn’t good enough and jail the driver until he can prove he’s not guilty. This was the Liberal approach.
So whether this Royal Commission will sheet home a lot of the blame to Mr Morrison or be much more circumspect and look at the wider issues, I have to wonder about the pattern that we see emerging here. While Tony Abbott was happen to hold two Royal Commissions that were intended to embarrass Labor, including the one where he appointed the scrupulous unbiased Dyson Heydon*, since then there’s been a reluctance on the part of the government to hold them. We didn’t need one into the banks until they agreed that there should be one – possibly because they were worried that if Labor got into power they’d hold one with tougher terms of reference. We didn’t need one into child abuse until Victoria announced an inquiry, so it was obvious that whatever was discovered with that would make the refusal look bad.
And now, we don’t need to look at anything to do with what the previous government did, apparently.
Waleed Aly wanted to know what the point of an inquiry into Morrison’s appointments was because apparently, we all know everything we need to know, which is an argument I remember being raised about a whole range of inquiries where the inquirer found out more than anybody thought was there. One has to ask what the point of writing a whole article where one asks what the point is, when nobody will take any notice and cancel it?
Still, I guess it creates a talking point and talking points sell newspapers.
*If you don’t believe me, check it out. When challenged, he declared that he had no conflict of interest!
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11 comments
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Kerri -
RoadKillCafe -
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JudithW -
Phil Pryor -
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GL -
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Terence Mills -
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andy56
Return to home pageWhen I read an article this morning suggesting that Morrison is gone so why do we need to investigate the secret ministries and immediately thought of all those old men dragged away from their sunny homes in Brazil to be questioned about some things that happened back in the mid 1940’s?
I think at the time there were assertions that time does not confer innocence.
What you don’t realise and admittedly not many know, but the messiah from the shire not only misappropriated extra ministries but he also appointed himself to the high court, the Supreme Court, the divorce court, the tennis court, the number one kfc franchise holder in se asia, the second coming of Michael Jackson, master chef with the voice of an angel, front row, winger and 5/8 for the sharks, head referee and line persons, maaate, this is one selfless slime sucker, the jerk with a smirk, well now you know why. The rotten old scroat told him it was all good, go for it, the suckers never know till it’s too late.
The old scroat and its diseased offspring may be in a spot of bother in the usofa, dominion voting machines after their balls, sue the shit out of the fuckers along with Carlson and the rest of news corpse/ fox cheerleaders.
Meanwhile fucking Labor show they, too, can be as destructive to the environment as the previous mob. Well done you fucking arseholes, even repeat the same lines. Perhaps scotty, in the goodness of his heart appointed himself to albanese’s job as well.
Media acting as gatekeepers for the powerful versus holding power to account?
Got a lot of Twitter likes/retweets for this:
‘To be fair, & Waleed may not like it, but many similar aspire to social mobility and higher status. Including in the media who feel the need to support the LNP for some ‘establishment’ fairy dust to sprinkle down upon them; overcompensating or Stockholm syndrome i.e. ‘owned’?’
I have some rusted on Lib voting friends & relatives who act similarly, claiming (suggesting) they have a need for ‘background’ that they missed via parents and don’t possess e.g. not going to private school, but end up becoming anodyne by not challenging anything, and would be thrown under the bus by the LNP implementing policies against their own interests (voted for by unrepresentative branch members).
I don’t think we’re anywhere near knowing the full extent of Scott Morrison’s deceit.
What was the plan for his ploy outlined in this article… https://johnmenadue.com/moves-began-in-2018-for-morrisons-secret-government/
How many Inquiries was Scott Morrison responsible for overseeing in secret that ended up reporting “nothing to see here!”?
S Morrison, a political perverted peanut, needed to wear ministries like open crotch panties for potential display of beauty, in his mind. He has a deep insistent urge to be loved, understood, stared at, admired, worshipped, drawn and sketched. So many people in politics, particularly but not exclusively, need to be “understood”, because deep down, sub bowel, they are such wonderful people. A little devotion, forgiveness, worship, adulation, loud cheering and free drinks would assist…
Given the chosen one’s track record of lying, there is little point asking him anything as part of an inquiry as you simply cannot believe a word he says.
Dan Andrews government “lashed” as “…the “worst government in modern Australian history”” by the Mad Monk (the second worst PM ever). I nearly choked on my coffee from laughing.
https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/politics/daniel-andrews-government-lashed-as-the-worst-in-modern-australian-history/news-story/de423edfc46cb1b0e2eb5be08e195ee4
GL, many have hinted that Abbott’s career was rigged, that he is an unsociable dill, is a fanatical fool and has no record of work achievement ever. Abbott would have to study had to pass a dill’s test for qualification and leave kindy.., one might laughingly imagine. But, let the Manly Masturbator say what he imagines is suitable for the Murdoch-Fox fleas, fools and fantasisers, a huge pot of neat rows of turds…thus, how Jules Verne low is the Victorian opposition of filthite fools?
I heard Waleed Aly on The Minefield this morning and I found his reasoning obscure : he appears to be saying that as there was no criminality and as only conventions were broken by Morrison and secrecy and disregard for conventions occurred, there should be no need for an enquiry.
The facts as they appear are that there was a brazen attempt to bypass protocol and convention and the then PM knew that the GG would go along with it because the GG is obliged to follow convention which requires that he act on the advice he receives from the government (i.e. the Prime Minister).
To suggest that this does not require an enquiry is disingenuous : conventions have been cynically bypassed and then covered up.
Albanese is right to have a former High Court judge look into this abuse of process.
Terrence, sounds like someone has Waleed’s ear. He must have some idea of what the lead-up to a coup looks like. The only reason Aussies are walking around in a general atmosphere of peace is that a gang of power brokers hiding in the shadows, whose frontsmen were Morrison and Hurley this time around, did not pull the trigger and conjure up some kind of convenient emergency so as to shut the country down and declare martial law. That group of organizers needs to be exposed before it happens.
Aly is very generous in his interpretation and liberal in his sense of a revenge-less war. However, what the LNP and all their cronies need to understand is, they need to be accountable. If your going to fuck up broadband only because it was ALP policy, you better be prepared. You should pay from your own pocket. How laughable is 20mb/s download speed now. If your going to be an LNP cultural warrior like Abbott, you better be prepared to pay out of your own pocket for the damage you cause. I have no problem banning abortion so long as your willing to adequately support the mother and child for 20 odd years. And we know what the LNP’s predisposition is on this point. If you have a messiah predisposition, you better be prepared for the crucifixion when you fuck up. When you surreptitiously try to dominate the country, because you thought you were the chosen one, be prepared to be judged. This is not a no war zone. The LNP played for keeps. Robodebt was every bit as viscious as carpet bombing of civilians, just on a smaller scale. Indiscriminate and pointless. Scaring the population into submission, forcing them to meekly accepting of their fate. Using fear as a motivator. And lets not forget the concentration camps off shore. Lives destroyed for what and at what cost? The lack of compassion and empathy for those doing it tough should be rewarded with a sufficient dose in return. They are so much a law and order party, let the law fall on them with full force. Lets make sure they are buried for a long long time. Civility only works when there is mutual respect. The LNP have shown no such behaviour.