Watching a clip on the ABC of Scott Morrison answering questions about his culpability for the illegal and immoral Robodebt scheme I was struck by his lying. Scott Morrison inveterate liar as a politician. Not having seen him for a while I thought thank goodness, we do not have this scheming liar as prime minister anymore. Talk about damaging the reputation of the nation and poisoning the civic well. Just look at the toxic environment our public service has become after a decade of these underhand Coalition politicians in power in Canberra.
Scheming Scott Morrison & His Robodebt Scheme
Avoiding the freedom of information (FOI) rights the Coalition made sure nothing was ever in writing, which could come back and bite them on the bum. The Royal Commission into the Robodebt scheme was hampered by this shifty policy practiced by ministers and their public servants. Getting around the checks and balances for good government and human rights was the speciality of this bunch of nefarious individuals. There was an air of smugness in their dealings with the media and all those who deigned to question their motives and modes of operating.
The manipulation of grant money to marginal electorates in multiple rorts was a defining signature of their time in office.
“From 2016 to 2019, the Robodebt scheme raised more than half a million inaccurate Centrelink debts through a method of ‘income averaging’, which has since been ruled unlawful. Debts were imposed on people like Angelica which they then had to prove they didn’t owe.”
Morrison’s Damned Lies & Unwanted Statistics From PwC
The massive increase in outsourcing to consultancy firms like PwC by the Coalition was another indicator, as to the kind of government they were. Gutting the public service and reducing their own direct culpability for numerous reviews into the processes of governing were facilitated by this expansion of the private sector’s role. Ministers were feted by these businesses, as they sought to benefit from the billions being handed out. This was far less exacting than having to deal with one’s own bureaucratic departments. PwC did a million-dollar report into the Robodebt scheme, which was never tabled by Morrison’s government. The rivers of gold promised by the Coalition never eventuated and, indeed, back fired on them and us to the tune of $1.8 billion in a settled class action.
“The architects of Robodebt will be referred for criminal and civil prosecution after a royal commission handed down its report into the unlawful scheme today.
Former Queensland chief justice Catherine Holmes’s report into the coalition government’s automated debt-raising policy has been tabled in parliament and released to the public.
The three-volume, 990-page report, includes 57 recommendations – the culmination of hundreds of hours of evidence, thousands of exhibits, and nearly a million documents.
A sealed chapter, separate to the bound report, recommends referrals of individuals for civil and criminal prosecution.”
Who Will Pay The Piper?
Who will pay the piper, will it be the liar? Politicians and public servants are in the picture for possible prosecution following referrals to the AFP and other judicial bodies, according to rumours about what is in the sealed section of the Royal Commission findings into the Robodebt scheme. It would be a turn up for the books if an official was actually prosecuted following one of these enquiries. White collar crimes are rarely prosecuted in Australia, apparently, they are usually too complex for our police and laws. The cops like a blue-collar criminal to beat up on for something with a bit more obvious brutality and violence about it. In this instance, half a million Australians were falsely accused of owing large amounts of money and forced to pay it back. Some took their own lives in despair over it. There were disabled, elderly, and seriously vulnerable people backed into a financial corner of which they could not see a way out from. Meanwhile, public servants on huge salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, like Kathryn Campbell, wilfully ignored the illegality of the scheme in favour of keeping their ministers happy. Suffering was something happening elsewhere, not in the departments of social security or human services.
Fearless advice was not something Australian public servants dispensed, not if they wanted to keep climbing the greasy pole. Ambition trumped humanity, aspiration overwhelmed any sense of morality or compassion in these Canberra offices.
Punish The Poor Is The New Centrelink Motto
Above the door to the offices of the inner sanctum of these senior bureaucrats may have hung a plaque that read, “Punish the Poor for they Have Small Voice”. Perhaps, Kathryn Campbell looked up at that and smiled each day before she went about her instrumental role in establishing and maintaining the Robodebt scheme. I do not know, of course, but surely there must have been some missionary zeal in prosecuting illegal and false debts upon some 500, 000 struggling Australians. The Coalition ministers like Scott Morrison, Alan Tudge, and Stuart Robert definitely had that ideological zeal in their publicly declared belief that they were welfare cops attacking half a million cheats who were ripping off working Australians. The Coalition made political mileage on the back of such assertions. The fact that this was shown to be complete poppy cock, absolute BS, by the number crunching reports and reviews did not stop the nearly 5 years of Robodebt. Welfare cheats are a minuscule amount of those receiving much needed income support, with the vast majority struggling to survive and wanting a decent job.
Australians need to wake up and stop buying the crap about dole bludgers, whether it makes them feel better or not. Because there but for the grace of god go I.
The Reserve Bank of Australia banks on there being an unemployment rate of 4.5% for it to keep inflation in their 2-3% band. This equates to half a million Australians being out of work. The RBA factors this via NAIRU as their conception of full employment for the Australian economy. The government of the day supports the RBA in these economic assumptions and settings. Keeping inflation down costs the lives of these Australians, in terms of having financially viable opportunities for a good life. Why should they then be punished further by being despised by the rest of us? Why should they have to live so far below the poverty line in a civilised developed nation like Australia? These settings have been in place for the last 50 years and the politicians like Morrison and Co know this.
Scott Morrison inveterate liar as a politician feeds on mistruths like this.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt & Financial Freedom
©HouseTherapy
