It’s shockingly obvious that nobody – ministers, senior public servants and many of those who administered the programs – was capable of recognising the grim irony of the powerful using illegal methods against the powerless, under the guise of ensuring that the powerless behaved with integrity not required from the powerful.
Robodebt the cyber-machine pretending to take values out Welfare decisions. Only a Penacostalist could come up with a smokescreen like that. Let the computer be the judge said Pontious Pilate Morrison “I wash my hands and stand aside of any decision”
If public trust is to be restored, at the very least, the people responsible for this major breach of the law, the illegal Robodebt scheme, should face the hardest penalties available under our legal system.
The mainstream media is failing in its duty to hold the Coalition to account as it continues falsified scare campaigns against Labor, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s brothers are still fugitives in hiding from a corruption inquiry and the NSW Liberal Party still has 20 seats to fill with candidates with the state election only 4 weeks away on the 25th of March.
PwC was commissioned to do a report on Robodebt in 2017 but but can’t recall if it was finalised, or not, or why. What’s the scam?
PwC is the scam. PwC was effectively paid *not* to deliver the Robodebt report; to never “finalise” it, to keep it in draft form so nobody ever had to be accountable.
This was the Big4 consultancy the government used to attack poor people with its big “welfare report” a year earlier now deployed in the cover it up. Highlights from the testimony of PwC partner Shane West at the Royal Commission this week:
“No … I can’t recall.” “I don’t know.” “I’m not sure”. “I don’t recall”. “I’m not sure I can say whether or not it is”. “Sorry, I can’t think of one” “This is getting beyond my area of knowledge”. The series of short videos on this Twitter feed is worth watching for sheer obfusca
Embattled former Coalition minister Stuart Robert is facing a new investigation into meetings he took as a minister with a business associate and their Canberra firm who he had previously advised on their bids for IT contracts worth tens of millions of dollars.
Well, it would be because there is no jury. What I’m trying to say is that the decision has been made by the people who matter which – as I am sure you know is the Federal Coalition. Lidia Thorpe has failed to declare a conflict of interest.
Peter Dutton has led the charge, announcing that Senator Thorpe must leave Parliament because ‘you can’t receive those briefings during the day and then hang out, you know, in nice circumstances of a night-time with a bikie.
Yes, Rob B is ex- Lib Premier Ted’s son. He was campaign manager for Monique Ryan’s downing of Josh at Kooyong in the last Federal Election. He is now working in the same capacity to ensure Matthew Guy loses in Victoria By Rob Baillieu
Under Matthew Guy, the Victorian Liberal Party is a souffle in the sun, collapsing in on itself. When it comes to scandal it doesn’t get much worse than your top lawyer quitting over concerns that you’re breaking the law. Except maybe your Chief of Staff resigning over a major donation scandal. The near-constant scandals have ruined Matthew Guy’s attempt to campaign on integrity. Not that it ever had a chance. When the most common refrain that follows your name is ‘lobster with a mobster’ then you probably shouldn’t campaign on integrity anyway.
She openly signed off on $22k of bonus gifts to her exec staff for work and goals achieved well before time. Morrison di the same for his political benefit and dodi it in secret while publicly blaming and shaming Holgate who in the end was found innocent.
Of the manufacturing projects, more than half were in electorates held by the Coalition while just three were in safe Labor seats.
Politicians would lose the ability to decide who gets billions of dollars in grants every year under a proposal from an independent think tank aimed at ending pork-barrelling in key marginal electorates.The Grattan Institute, in a report released overnight, said the “waste” of pork-barrelling had contributed to a fall in community confidence in Australian politics and increased perceptions that the political system was corrupt.
It showed huge discrepancies in the 19,000 grants allocated during that period, with Coalition seats sharing $1.9 billion compared to Labor seats’ $530 million. Adjacent seats received vastly different allocations with the only difference being the political hue of the electorate.
The Grattan research, which used much of the information uncovered by The Herald and The Age, found marginal seats were funded at almost four times the rate of safe seats in the $1 billion Community Development Grant program.
A Federal Police warning to the Coalition government over the conduct of one of its MPs was kept secret until it was too late for his constituents, writes Rex Patrick.
It seems Matthew Guy is twisting what was initially reported. He agreed to the corrupt proposal and a contract was drawn up between Caitlin and the unnamed donor. However, the contract was reported to have been rejected by the said unnamed donor, and not by Matthew Guy or Caitlin. Everyone knew that the contract constituted a transgression of the rules, and whilst it didn’t eventuate the conspiracy nevertheless did. The unsigned contract remains evidence of the intended corruption. Guy should stand down. Conspiracy to commit a crime is a crime no matter if it didn’t occur.
A question remains who leaked the email to The Age, why, and just how divided and corrupt is the current Victorian LNP?
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy says his former chief of staff never signed a contract with any donors to provide funds in addition to his taxpayer-funded salary.
On Tuesday afternoon, O’Brien tweeted: “Sick of dodgy politics? So am I. It’s why I’ll fight for more power and more funding for our anti-corruption watchdogs.
”Coalition MPs expressed nervousness about the potential political damage that could be caused by the episode. In particular, they were worried that Guy was susceptible to attacks on political integrity because of the “lobster with a mobster” dinner, where he dined with an alleged mafia boss, and scandals as a planning minister in the Baillieu-Napthine government.
Federal Liberals were also worried if Guy could withstand any further revelations about his involvement in the proposed arrangement with Catlin.
According to the The Age. Matthew Guy’s judgement has fallen short when chosing his staff.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy’s chief of staff asked a wealthy Liberal Party donor to make more than $100,000 in payments to his private marketing business, in addition to his taxpayer-funded salary.
Morrison’s term was more Jones Town than Government
The federal coalition should “hang their head in shame” after an inquiry found public servants were pressured to reveal an asylum seeker boat arrival on election day, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says.
Rugby League Rorts: how Scott Morrison funnelled millions from Commonwealth grant programs into Rugby League
Brisbane Broncos.
One grant contributed $21.3m of the $23.7m. Initially the “Beyond the Broncos Girls Academy” received $8.8m for a 27-month period, a small variation decreased the amount by $200,000 after 11 months.
A second variation then added $13m and extending the contract by 24 months. The initial grant and variations were not allocated by a tender process, instead they were direct non-competitive grants.
The 1936 S23(i) Tax Act making sporting clubs tax exempt still apply to the Brisbane Broncos (Income from non-members are taxable)
Brisbane Broncos is a publicly listed company
News Corp owns 69% of the Brisbane Broncos.
News Corp owns the broadcast rights for NRL
News Corp is foreign-owned and often pays low or no taxes here.
Guide Dogs Victoria’s “capital fundraising” boss Paul Wheelton made over $87,000 in donations to the Liberal Party before the Federal Coalition gave millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to his charity.
Barilaro was appointed to a $500,000-a-year job less than a year after quitting state politics in a move that has outraged Liberal ministers and backbenchers.
Supposing the Morrison Government wanted to turn successive failures to destroy the ABC’s credibility into a success story, it could not do better than make significant Murdoch appointments to the ABC board, writes Paul Begley.
Turnout in Lingiari is down from 73.70% in 2016, to 72.85% in 2019, to 66.8% in 2022 (although this may increase slightly as final declaration votes are counted).
Verdict
While some criticism of the Coalition’s attempted voter ID bill is justified,
The con: Is the delay. It is in and money to be made in distracting the transition to a more rapid closure of the fossil fuel industry even if the case for renewable clean energy has been proved. If you can’t beat the argument’s direction of progress then delay it for as long as possible. Just as the LNP, IPA and Murdoch are a coalition for the defense of fossil fuels and will now continue to be, while declaring they are on board with reducing emissions and profiting from their efforts.
the Institute of Public Affairs, a rightwing group with a history of climate science denial that is supported by fossil fuel and mining interests, released what it described as polling showing people were open to the idea of nuclear energy. News Corp newspapers ran its arguments uncritically.
Why does the case for nuclear energy persist?
There is an assumption by some people, including Coalition MPs, that renewable energy cannot do the job, despite the expert advice that says otherwise. These critiques rarely address that advice head on.
But there is also a long history of nuclear energy being used as a delaying tactic for acting on climate change in Australia, including by fossil fuel interests.
Australia’s Shame – AG Michaela Cash took lessons from the Steve Bannon playbook. Control the Bureaucracy. Wasn’t that Lenin’s playbook?
Just before ousted Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the election, his Attorney-General Michaelia Cash stacked the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with a host of Liberal Party mates. Political appointments are out of control and the AAT needs to be killed off, writes Greg Barns SC.
The current high approval rate for offshore VET sector student applications from Nepal could raise more risk of colleges focused on selling “work visas” rather than education, writes Dr Abul Rizvi.
MOST AUSTRALIANS would be surprised that over the last two months, Nepal was Australia’s leading source of overseas students, overtaking both China and India.
Busted!! The LNP strategy of putting LNP supporters in charge of Government Departments is straight out of the Steve Bannon, American GOP Republican and Leninist strategies. The LNP was intent on dismantling the Public Service and has been doing it for the past 13 years.
Agency’s statement, which triggered last-minute scare campaign from Liberals, prompts increasing questions about its independence
Australian Border Force did not issue press releases about any of the five boat interceptions it made in the four years prior to its controversial election-day announcement that a vessel had been detected near Christmas Island, prompting further questions about the political independence of the agency.
The ABF is investigating its election-day conduct, which the acting prime minister, Richard Marles, has described as a “disgrace”.
The agency issued a press release as voting was under way, warning of the interception of an asylum-seeker boat off Christmas Island, precipitating a last-minute scare campaign warning voters to maintain border security by voting Liberal.
Political parties are free to say what they like, but it is their actions that define them. No amount of flowery rhetoric can hide the true nature of a political party, which is defined by its policies. The current Australian government may have flowery rhetoric in its beliefs, but, as I hope I have shown here, their actions and policies tell a different story.
EXCLUSIVE Education Minister Alan Tudge has admitted he forgot to disclose to parliament that he had transferred ownership of a $1 million Melbourne property to his former wife for six months, in a clear breach of disclosure guidelines.
The missing in action Minister – who stepped down from the frontbench last year in the wake of an ongoing scandal over an extramarital relationship with former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller – confirmed the error on Friday following an investigation by news.com.au.
It follows controversy over a recent $500,000 payout to Ms Miller – who worked in his office as a press secretary – that was also revealed by news.com.au last month, with questions still yet to be answered on what the payout is for. The Prime Minister aannounced last year that Mr Tudge was not returning to the frontbench of his own volition.
However, on the same day he announced the election, he revealed Mr Tudge was still the education Minister but had stood aside and was welcome back after the votes were counted.
“Well, he stood aside. He decided to stand aside for his own personal reasons. And should he be in a position to be able to step up again, then I would welcome him back,’’ Mr Morrison said.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton also previously failed to declare a million-dollar property his family owns in Townsville, in a blunder his office blamed on simple human error.
Murphy said he was further frustrated by the complaint from Taylor’s office given the minister’s first speech to parliament in which he said he would “always” defend free speech as the foundation of democracy.
Order to remove Vote Angus Out community group’s election signs in Hume came after complaint from Liberal incumbent’s office
Rules and Laws aren’t for Josh Frydenberg they stand in his way
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is responsible for laws being broken that maintain accountability in the fossil fuel industry. Anthony Klan reports. THE BOSS of the nation’s monopoly infrastructure regulator – who engaged in serious illegality that the Federal Government went to substantial lengths to cover up – earlier helped dismantle accountability laws in favour of major fossil fuels infrastructure owners.
Two more weeks and they will have lied their way to oblivion.
Fears that the cashless debit card will be implemented for all income recipients across the board, including those on the age pension, appear to originate from the Government’s own information and statements.
Corruption under the LNP has slid from 7 to 18 on the International Corruption Index. Morrison his model, under which Politicians chose what is and isn’t to be investigated,and transparency hidden wouldn’t be a kangaroo court. No independent body is needed. Its the ALP’s fault we don’t have it or wont be getting an ICAC should he win. An ICAC which is primarily a broken promise of Morrison’s from his 2019 election platform. He also insists he doesn’t lie but has a string of NDA’s hiding his past trailing him. How Trump is that?
So we asked five experts to analyse and grade the major parties’ policies on the issue of a federal ICAC.
Religious hate has been imported directly from America for use by the “blessed” Scott Morrison. A political tool applied by his “Captains Pick” Katherine Deves in Warringah to hopefully divide the whole Australian electorate by hate, in order to squeeze a few votes from the ultra religious right, god botherers, transphobes, and homophobes hidden under rocks. Even worse, he defends this action in the guise of “free speech” and ” the defense of women”, Single handedly Morrison has shown he’s lower than a snake’s belly and a hypocrite who speaks in tongues. Particularly when he doubles down and says he will protect children ( LNP politicians) from any “digital trolling” if they win. Morrison has shown he’s as two faced and corrupt as any tent crusader, QAnon, or other hate-preacher,we have seen here or come out of America.
Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine said trans youth are being “driven to depths of despair” and committing suicide at alarming rates, during a speech on Saturday about the dangers of anti-trans laws being passed in red states across the country. Levine, the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, said in a speech at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth that LGBTQ youth are being “attacked” and have “few places to turn” for help. “I want to say this very, very clearly: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans are committing suicide at a rate that should shock our conscience,” Levine said during the Out For Health Conference. “Even after decades of progress, the most vulnerable among us continue to suffer … transgender women of color not only continue to be harassed, but are more likely than the population at large to suffer violence and even murder.”
The owner of Lark is Bruce Matheson noted LNP donor who gives the LNP $100K in return for $4.5M of taxpayer’s money. Better odds than he gives the public on his slot machines.
The Prime Minister has promised vital relief for connoisseurs of $250-per-bottle whiskey, confirming a $4.5 million grant for a boutique distillery in Tasmania.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has chastised Labor for an ad highlighting Liberal MP Gladys Liu’s links to donors suspected to be risks to Australia’s national security, claiming the opposition is engaging in racist campaigning. “They go after Gladys Liu because she’s Chinese,” Morrison said on Sunday. “They’re engaged in what I think is a sewer tactic here. This is Morrison Wolf whistling and the The Age assisting with it’s banner
One component of the ad stated that the Victorian division of the Liberal Party reportedly handed back $300,000 in donations because then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s office was told the Chinese donors, invited to a 2015 event by Liu, were potential national security threats.
“What do we know about Liberal Gladys Liu?” a male voice says in the ad, with an ominous-sounding background track.
Frydenberg proved to be a law of his own when he co-opted NGO CEOs to endorse his advertising in Kooyong breaking the rules that apply to all Charities.
The faceless Coalition aides conscripted to do the leg-work for the government’s billion-dollar pork barrelling program have spurned requests to comply with the ANAO audit, leaving ministers unaccountable for their spending before the Election. Jommy Tee reveals how Coalition MPs have the inside running on pushing for projects in their electorates.
The Audit Office (ANAO) has encountered a severe lack of co-operation from ministerial advisers, who have refused to participate into the current audit into the controversial Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF).
The ministerial advisers play the key role in filtering information from the Department of Infrastructure which runs the $1.4 billion program and in assisting the ministerial panel in determining who gets grants under the program.
Michael West Media (MWM) has been informed that the first draft of the Audit Office into the beleaguered and controversial BBRF contains damning commentary about the administration of the program.
Serious deficiencies have been highlighted including lack of robust reasoning as to why particular grants were awarded by the various ministerial panels. We have previously exposed how applicants that r
Is it any wonder that, despite promising to introduce one, the Morrison Government has voted against a federal integrity commission 31 times?
Is anyone surprised that the PM blames Labor and refuses to discuss it further? And, is anyone shocked that the media lets this Government set the agenda each week, claiming that the majority of us don’t want one? Well, Independent Australia wants a Federal ICAC, our investigations editor has started a political party, Federal ICAC Now, to do everything possible to facilitate one and we know our readers overwhelmingly support its inception.
Currently, the LNP in Australia is importing their ideas from the US Republicans who have given up on the great experiment of Democracy. We have seen their Australian clones adopt a carbon copy of the culture wars from U.S. From rumblings that the election is being “rigged” to multiculturalism being the scourge that’s dividing this nation from a mythical and heroic one they claim once united us. The increasing drift to the right is taking us away from from a representative Democracy and driving us towards Mussolini’s dream of a Corporate State and in the long term to the death of the Liberal-National Coalition as a political party. Their current short-term agendas carries with them the long-term consequences of the board taking over the company..
“Overall, Greene’s position within the Republican party seems secure. That’s partly because the Republican leadership is surely aware that most of the energy and activism in conservatism is in the far-right wing that stands behind Greene. In fact, Greene is the poster child of a rising group of rightwing radicals: in Congress, she likes to present herself and like-minded allies such as representatives Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz as the future of the Republican party, and they aren’t shy about their intention to purge whatever vestiges of “moderate” conservatism might still exist within the Republican party.”
It’s no longer “what can we do for you, but what you can do for us in terms of $$$? In the end many of these announced promises will simply go the way of vanashing bubbles even if the LNP government wins. Morrison has been only doing one thing for the past 3 years,and that’s rehearsing the reselling of his massively expensive waste. It’s like a replay of Sunset Boulevarde “Action Lights your on Scotty” with not a voter invited on to his very “on set party” for the crew.
The system under which billions of dollars of grants are handed out to communities across Australia is irretrievably broken. There’s no other conclusion to be drawn from the figures compiled by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that, grant by grant, electorate by electorate, show a community’s ranking on the electoral pendulum dictates its financial support.
Straight from Trump’s Playbook or Steve Bannon’s appoint as many of your friends to positions that will hamper any new government. There’s no ICAC to investigate the corruption that this government has delivered and wielded on the Australian electorate. Economic and Cultural Crimes done dirt cheap.
The Australian Federal Police Association, which represents 4,000 AFP members, has placed the establishment of a “far-reaching anti-corruption body” among its highest priorities ahead of the federal election, alongside improved support for officers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, greater resourcing, and stronger firearms regulations.
The anti-corruption subject has raised its head once again. Now the Australian Federal Police are calling for a commission with far reaching arms. I thought the AFP were a voice for the LNP, however this report in the Guardian tells me something different. This commission must have retrospective powers. The Scummo team doesn’t want that. One has to wonder why? Could it be that the vast majority of them are corrupt?
Labor has already committed to an anti-corruption commission with the strength and powers of a standing royal commission, including the ability to hold public hearings.
Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has defended the appointment of ex-Liberal MPs and coalition staffers to high-paying roles on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, saying they are “qualified”.
There is absolutely nothing good one can find to say about the LNP. This diabolical, self-serving regime is made up of the worst type of political misfits ever seen in this nation! The LNP has degenerated into an internationally condemned pack of smug, totally ruthless, unconscionably cruel gang of lying, conniving, misogynistic bible-thumping hypocrites who don’t give a rat’s behind about anyone but themselves and their multi-millionaire, non-taxpaying donors in the Top 1%. Wake up, Australia and kick these smug, corrupt and self-serving parasites to the gutter at the next federal election – they do not care about you and never did!
Barnaby Joyce abolished Water Advisory Board and made a promise of $5.9bn to invest in a Qld dam with no business plan. Yet, Josh Frydenberg dares to say after 8 years “We have no evidence Victoria’s biggest infrastructure program will be a success”. What a pure political betrayal of Victoria his own state when experts were consulted, reports, and due diligence done and all he did was not be bothered to read them. He inherited the blackmail offer left by Abbott of $4bn withheld unless Dan Andrews capitulated and did what the LNP demanded. Victoria was the growth state before the pandemic and kept the nation afloat when the Federal LNP were dragging us backwards.
The costs of the federal government’s commitment to fund dams in Queensland without the scrutiny of a now-abolished national advisory body should be a cause for concern for the community, a former supreme court judge says. Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce disbanded the National Water Grid Advisory Body this week, claiming it was “an appropriate time for it to conclude its work”. The body had been established by Joyce’s predecessor, Michael McCormack, in 2020 to scrutinise and provide advice on major water infrastructure projects.
Ten years in the making of an agreement signed just weeks before an election smells of a scam. One needs to ask what Morrison actually sacrificed in order to gain this politically advantageous signing at such a fortuitous moment. The Indians are known for their bargaining skills and ability to take commercial advantage. They are one of the few countries currently refusing to criticize Putin and are not employing sanctions against Russia. Furthermore, they are happily buying their cheaper oil and so offering indirect and questionable support in their war against Ukraine. Morrison is rewarding India a nation for its questionable ethical and contrarian stance to ours and his associated media propagandists are supporting him in this less than perfect moral stance. he’s indirectly siding with Russia. In fact he directly sided with Putin at the last Climate summit in Glasgow.
The Morrison government has hailed the agreement as a significant step in its efforts to diversify export markets and reduce Australia’s economic dependence on China.”This is an economic agreement that has strategic might to it,” Mr Tehan said.
Morrison punishes Victoria a Labor State he knows he simply can’t win. Smoothing the path for Matthew Guy in November his only hope. Morrison has to go!!
Even more interesting is The Age’s opinion section. It is currently promoting the witholding of funds by the Morrison government. It’s a biased opinion and plain to see written by an member of none other than the Victorian LNP. No surprise now that Ch9 owns the masthead and is run by Peter Costello. We must in the long term SAVE AND REVIVE OUR ABC
The Morrison government says Victorian Labor’s multibillion-dollar Suburban Rail Loop does not “stack up”, raising questions about the state government’s ability to pay for the project if forced to go it alone. Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher also hit back at attacks from the state government, which has criticised the Commonwealth for only allocating 6 per cent of the budget’s infrastructure funding to Victoria, which is home to 26 per cent of the nation’s population.
What has come into relief with Fierravanti-Wells’s ferocious tirade on Scott Morrison is why so much effort was made in the past 2 weeks to have Anthony Albanese look like a heartless, uncaring bully and thug in the case of Kimberly Kitching even though she made no formal complaint. The debate about Kitching was orchestrated along with the accusations about the “mean girls” as a PR smokescreen for what Morrison knew was laying ahead. Because Fierravanti- Welles’s thoughts and accusations let loose about Morrison were no secret within the Liberal Party machinery and were going to be unstoppable pre-election. It demonstrates just how Trumplike and American the Australian Liberal Party from Abbott to Morrison has become. The Liberal Party dirt brigade has been working overtime.
They like the Republicans claim they are the only Party defending our true religion and faith and Morrison isn’t shy claiming he is the spiritual head of the new politically Christian Liberal Party. His decisions are based on protecting faith and culture and his decisions far superior to any facts put forward by divisive godless experts and scientists. Unfortunately he represents minority interests who claim they are the true defenders of all Australians. This began with John Howard who cosied up with the Exclusive Bretheren and other religious cults
The savage assessment of Scott Morrison by one of his nominal allies is like a bolt of lightning into the debate about whether the Prime Minister deserves another term in power.It electrifies the election campaign when Morrison is trying to make the contest about his leadership and the personality of his opponent, Anthony Albanese.
olddogthoughts 