Byelection in the south Sydney seat expected to be won by Liberal candidate Simon Kennedy as AEC warns voter turnout could be low
The Liberal party will be hoping to the exorcise the ghost of Scott Morrison on Saturday as voters in Sydney’s south go to the polls to elect his replacement.
The byelection in the seat of Cook, which comes after Morrison announced his resignation from politics in January, is almost certain to be won by the Liberal candidate Simon Kennedy.
Continue reading...Former PM, who took on five extra ministries in secret, tells Olympian Sam Fricker that listeners might say ‘Oh, I didn’t think you were that humble’
The former prime minister Scott Morrison has declared himself more into humility than power, detailing in a lengthy post-politics interview how the Aukus submarine deal was sealed and that the Quad regional dialogue was dreamed up over dinner.
Speaking on champion diver Sam Fricker’s Diving Deep podcast – a series of interviews with “high performers” – Morrison reflects on his time in office, the pressures facing prime ministers and how he approached the job.
Continue reading...The party misses the chance to have a female candidate in the safe seat vacated by former prime minister Scott Morrison
Simon Kennedy will contest Scott Morrison’s seat of Cook for the Liberals in the byelection triggered by the former prime minister’s resignation.
Kennedy, a consultant and the former candidate for Bennelong, won preselection in the first round on Monday night with 158 out of 296 votes, beating the mayor of Sutherland shire, Carmelo Pesce, and war widow and veteran family advocate commissioner, Gwen Cherne.
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The trade minister, Don Farrell, is at the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi where he had a sideline chat with China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, overnight.
Sideline chats are the unofficial official talks – it’s not considered a bilateral, but both sides have to agree to the talk in order for it to happen. So it’s not just a see them and grab situation between sessions. It’s a little more planned than that.
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Today is the 16th anniversary of Rudd’s national apology
It is National Apology Day, which marks the anniversary of the day the former prime minister Kevin Rudd formally apologised to Indigenous people for the stolen generations.
Continue reading...Former prime minister quitting after 16 years in parliament to also ‘spend more time with my family’
The former prime minister Scott Morrison has announced he will quit parliament at the end of February, triggering a byelection in his seat of Cook.
In a statement on social media on Tuesday, Morrison said he had decided “to take on new challenges in the global corporate sector and spend more time with my family”.
Continue reading...Linda Reynolds’ then chief of staff Fiona Brown was first to interview pair after alleged rape, which Lehrmann has always denied
Former Liberal staffer Fiona Brown was dramatically compelled to give evidence in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial on Monday on the proviso the federal court’s live stream was disabled while she was in the witness box.
Brown was Senator Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff at the time Brittany Higgins claims Lehrmann raped her on the ministerial couch, and was the first person to interview both of them. She took contemporaneous notes.
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And here is the standard of some of the “debate” among senior parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, Australia’s sense of social cohesion is at its lowest recorded ebb.
Continue reading...A US news report claimed Donald Trump discussed secret US naval capabilities with the billionaire Australian businessman
It was a revelation that could have had explosive ramifications.
US news outlet ABC News reported that an “excited” Donald Trump allegedly discussed top-secret details of US nuclear submarines with the Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, who later allegedly shared the information with at least 45 people, including “three former Australian prime ministers”.
Continue reading...Amended motion calls on party to ‘take a practical approach to lowering carbon emissions as a substantive move to nuclear power is made’
A Barnaby Joyce-backed push to strip net zero from the Nationals’ policy platform has effectively been defeated as the former leader’s shadow cabinet position is brought into question.
Joyce backed a motion to strip net zero emissions by 2050 from the party platform at its national conference in Canberra on Saturday.
Continue reading...Freedom of information documents show officials scrambling for information after then PM announced $4m for Esther Foundation
The Esther Foundation – a rehabilitation facility accused of performing exorcisms and gay conversions – applied for “promised funding” a month after the funding had been announced.
Freedom of information documents show the health department rushing to get information after the then prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced $4m for the group in the lead-up to the 2019 election.
Continue reading...Minister for government services says ‘real victims are all those Australians who lost trust in government’ due to scheme
Bill Shorten has accused Scott Morrison of being “a bottomless well of self-pity” with “not a drop of mercy for all of the real victims of robodebt”.
That outburst in question time followed the former prime minister’s defence of his involvement of the scheme in parliament on Monday, claiming Labor was pursuing a campaign of “political lynching” against him.
Continue reading...Shocking to learn politicians and public servants ‘were basically just lying to us’, Andrew Wilkie says
Early critics of robodebt have said they are shocked, appalled and outraged by how long the Coalition government persisted with the unlawful scheme.
The independent MP Andrew Wilkie and former the administrative appeals tribunal member Terry Carney were responding to the release of the royal commission report on Friday.
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Continue reading...Anthony Albanese highlights commission’s ‘extraordinary’ conclusion that former PM’s evidence was ‘untrue’
Scott Morrison has rejected the robodebt royal commission’s findings but not said whether he has been referred for further civil or criminal actions, in contrast to claims from former Coalition ministers Christian Porter, Alan Tudge and Stuart Robert ruling themselves out.
In a statement on Friday, the former prime minister said he “completely” rejects adverse findings, claiming they were “wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear documentary evidence presented to the commission”.
Continue reading...Recommendation of referrals included in ‘sealed chapter’ of 1,000-page report with findings handed to federal government and released publicly
The “crude and cruel” robodebt scheme has resulted in a recommendation that unnamed individuals be referred for civil and criminal prosecutions, the royal commission has revealed.
The commissioner, Catherine Holmes, submitted her report to the government on Friday and revealed it contained a “sealed chapter” that recommended referrals of individuals for what it labelled a “costly failure of public administration”. The report said robodebt was “neither fair nor legal”.
Continue reading...Catherine Holmes’ report is damning for the Coalition and the public service, yet the reckoning she advocates will take more than policy change
Robodebt royal commissioner Catherine Holmes’ report is damning for the Coalition and former ministers, including Scott Morrison, Alan Tudge and Stuart Robert.
And it is disastrous for the public service – certain individuals within it and the entity as a whole; or what some might call the bureaucracy’s soul, if such a thing can exist.
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Bill Shorten: robodebt commission report will be a ‘vindication’ for victims and their families
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, says today “is a vindication” for victims of the robodebt scandal with the royal commission report being handed down. He told ABC’s RN this morning:
The heart of this story today is the fact that real people unlawfully had debt notices … raised against them by the most powerful institution in Australia, the commonwealth government.
Two of these people, after receiving robodebt notices, subsequently took their own lives that I’m aware of.
Today is not the day [their mothers] want. What they really want is their sons to be alive.
One of the challenges we’re seeing across the country is great teacher shortages … COVID brought that timetable forward.
Classrooms are more complex, there is a great diversity of needs across the classroom, and as society changes a lot of teachers and education ministers are testifying about the impact of technology in classrooms.
Continue reading...There is no evidence politicians knew of the allegations against the foundation when the grant to WA group the Esther Foundation was announced
The Morrison government gave $4m to an organisation accused of “extreme religious practices” – including exorcisms and gay conversion – on the same day the Australian government solicitor (AGS) advised the grant would “likely be without lawful authority”.
The former prime minister Scott Morrison announced the grant for Western Australia’s Esther Foundation in the lead-up to the 2019 election, declaring the organisation had “completely, completely captured” his heart.
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Continue reading...The situation posed by the former prime minister’s potential Aukus-related job has reignited discussion over what some experts call effectively ‘toothless tiger’ codes
Integrity experts say Scott Morrison’s reported links to an Aukus-related job in the UK defence industry show the pressing need for reforms to guard against the revolving door between government and industry.
The Nine newspapers on Tuesday reported Morrison had been “sounded out” by a UK defence firm and that that his associates were in “talks with corporations interested in the former prime minister’s Aukus insights”.
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Continue reading...Former PM appointed Michelle Landry and Ben Morton to administer departments in moves not widely known at the time
Liberal MP Karen Andrews has blasted Scott Morrison for appointing former minister Ben Morton to administer the home affairs department in 2021, saying there was “no reason to keep it hidden” and claiming she was not told about it as the minister in that portfolio.
It has also emerged that Nationals MP Michelle Landry was appointed to administer the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) at the same time and in the same manner as Morton, in moves that were gazetted but not widely known at the time.
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