Category Archives: Scott Morrison

Move to disallow $18m leadership program grant pitched by David Hurley

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Greens senator David Shoebridge says grant impacts ‘independence’ of governor general’s office and Scott Morrison should have rejected requests for support

The Greens and Jacqui Lambie Network have moved to disallow a controversial $18m grant to a leadership foundation for which the governor general, David Hurley, personally lobbied the Morrison government.

Announced in the 2022 budget, the $18m to establish the Australian Future Leaders Program was probed by Labor in opposition due to concerns the foundation was not operational before the grant was announced without a competitive tender.

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Plagued: book revealing Morrison’s ministries discloses national security discussions

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Book also includes comments about the government’s approach to dealing with China and discussions around Australia’s defence posture

It is the book that has landed Scott Morrison in the hottest water of his political career – revealing how he appointed himself to multiple ministries in his government unbeknown to the public or his colleagues.

That disclosure has attracted the most public interest, but the book Plagued also reveals previously secret deliberations of Australia’s national security committee (NSC) of cabinet.

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Pocock urges Labor to scrap tax cuts – as it happened

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Independent senator David Pocock says circumstances have changed ‘so much’ since stage three tax cuts policy was legislated. This blog is now closed

McManus: normal part of bargaining to have industrial action as a last resort

McManus is asked if she wants workers in specific business to regain the right to strike in support of workers in other business (otherwise known as sympathy strikes or solidarity action).

Not in support of workers in another business – together. It is a normal part of bargaining to have … as a last resort, to take industrial action, and that is what happens in countries that have multi-employer bargaining, and there [are] not more strikes, there is more pay rises.

Essentially when workers have an option to do that, obviously it means the option to have a better outcome, and a better outcome more quickly.

Basically, workers’ bargaining power has been smashed over that period of time That’s why we have a problem, a huge problem, with wages growth and unless we address that issue, that is not going to change.

We think [sector-wide bargaining] should be open to all, but obviously a lot of places … they are getting pay rises at the moment. They can access the bargaining system.

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Scott Morrison received token payments for speeches and plans to join global lecture circuit

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Former PM has confirmed he accepted airfares, accommodation and incidentals for appearances in Seoul and Tokyo, including during a parliament sitting week

Scott Morrison has revealed he received honorarium payments for recent speeches in Japan and Korea, and plans to join the international lecture circuit through a global speakers’ agency.

Morrison confirmed on his register of MPs’ interests that he has become a director and shareholder in a new company offering “advisory services”, and that he accepted business class airfares, accommodation and incidentals for appearances in Seoul and Tokyo – the latter when he was absent from parliament during a sitting week.

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Australia news live updates: Greens accuse government of undoing its own climate legislation

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Adam Bandt reacts to Labor’s decision to open 46,000km of ocean to exploration, saying his party will continue to advocate for a moratorium on new coal and gas projects. Follow live

A massive haul of the drug “ice”, with an estimated street value of $1.6bn, has been seized in NSW in the largest discovery of its kind in Australia, AAP reports.

Last month, Australian Border Force officers homed in on a number of sea cargo containers that arrived at Port Botany in Sydney.

There would need a change to the law.. with the Liberals saying they’ll take an oppositional role, the only way that will happen is with the support of the Greens.

Our position is that workers should be able to bargain collectively at whatever level they choose.

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News live: government pushing through ‘hopeless’ visa backlog, PM says; Reserve bank warns Australia must confront climate risks

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Anthony Albanese said visa delays were due to previous gutting of the public service, but said the government has reallocated staff from other areas into visa processing. Follow the day’s news live

Snow in the Blue Mountains

Residents in NSW are seeing snow as an icy blast sweeps through the south-east of the country.

We are genuinely overwhelmed by the incredible wave of support, love and messages we have received from so many people around Australia. This means so much to us as a family. Thank you to everyone for this. John will be blown away.

John will remain in hospital for a period of time for recovery and post operative treatment.

John has been through an eleven-and-a-half hour surgery in Melbourne yesterday and is now in a stable condition in ICU. The cancerous tumour was located in his mouth and it has been successfully removed. There is still a long road of recovery and healing ahead of us, but we know John is up for that task.

We are in awe of the incredible teams of healthcare professionals who have guided us through this very challenging time with such compassion. All of you undertook this big job and have given us a magnificent outcome. To all the surgeons, doctors, nurses and consultants – thank you one and all so very much.

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Speaker rejects Greens push to refer Scott Morrison to privileges committee

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Milton Dick found there was not enough evidence to suggest former PM deliberately misled parliament

A push by the Greens to refer Scott Morrison to parliament’s powerful privileges committee has been rejected by the Speaker, Milton Dick, who has found there was not enough evidence to say the former prime minister deliberately misled the lower house.

In a letter sent to the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, on Tuesday, Dick is understood to have advised the party that while Morrison’s decision to have himself appointed to five additional portfolios was “extremely serious”, there was not enough prima facie evidence to suggest he had deliberately misled parliament.

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Former PM says he did not misuse secret ministerial powers – as it happened

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If Morrison saga was playing out in the corporate world, he would have been stood down from job, Christine Holgate says

Former Australia Post boss, Christine Holgate continues to weigh in on revelations former prime minister Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to the finance portfolio, overseeing her independent review without her knowledge.

I feel extremely disappointed … To to be told and go through that experience inparliament and then to be told that there will be an independent investigation into you, and then a full Senate inquiry. At no point did I ever know ... the arms-length independent review was actually overseen by Mr Morrison as the finance minister. That doesn’t sound very independent to me.

If this had happened in a corporate world, you know, that person would have been stood down for their job. There would be an enormous set of consequences. But unfortunately, this is allowed to take place in parliament, it feels. I think it’s almost incredible. And actually quite disturbing.

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Australia news live: Greens seek to reconvene Senate committee into former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate’s dismissal

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Departments – not politicians – should decide government grant recipients, Grattan Institute recommends

The Grattan Institute has a very timely report out today with a plan to end pork barrelling, which calls for departments rather than ministers to make the call on who receives grants.

Ministers should be able to establish grant programs and define the selection criteria, but they should not be involved in choosing grant recipients.

Shortlisting and selecting grant recipients is an administrative function for the relevant department or agency. Ministers should have bigger fish to fry.

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Barnaby Joyce: the most perplexing contradictions in his account of the Morrison ministry scandal

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Repeated questioning of Nationals leader over when he knew about Morrison taking on resources portfolio provided confusing results

Barnaby Joyce was asked on Sunday what he knew, didn’t know and didn’t want to know about Scott Morrison’s additional powers.

The answers were hard to follow, to say the least. The former deputy prime minister said he kinda knew Morrison had appointed himself as resources minister and taken over the decision of the controversial Pep-11 gas licence off the NSW coast, but he also didn’t know.

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Barnaby Joyce says Scott Morrison never explicitly said he was also resources minister despite using special powers

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Former Nationals leader says he did not want to ‘go into bat’ on the increased powers out of concern Nationals may lose previously negotiated gains

Barnaby Joyce said Scott Morrison never explicitly told him he had sworn himself in as resources minister despite the former prime minister exercising special powers associated with the role, as prime minister Anthony Albanese said his predecessor’s actions could be subject to further inquiries.

In a testy interview, Joyce also told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday that he did not want to “go into bat” on the apparent increased powers because he believed the Nationals risked losing previously negotiated gains.

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Joyce says Qantas ‘not good enough’ in apology over airport chaos – as it happened

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Morrison didn’t call finance minister to apologise, Maiden says

There’s been an interesting point from Samantha Maiden on the ABC Insiders panel about the timeline of events between former PM Scott Morrison and his former finance minister Mathias Cormann.

Scott Morrison is really good at painting word images, right, and if you listened to that press conference this week, would you not get the impression that he called Mathias Cormann to apologise and he had called Josh? Would that be the impression you were left with?

That’s not what happened. What happened was Mathias Cormann calls Morrison on the weekend. He picks up The Weekend Australian, he reads the article, he comes to the international language of WTF and goes: “What happened here?”

Clearly you need to look at the response of all governments.

Primarily, it will be about the federal government. That’s what we have responsibility for, but the interaction between the levels of government of course, were critical to the response to the Covid pandemic.

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Greens question governor general’s ‘non-disclosure’ of Morrison powers – as it happened

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Albanese government awaits legal advice from solicitor general over former prime minister’s power grab. This blog is now closed

More on the governor general’s diaries, from AAP:

Governor general David Hurley’s diary makes no mention of the five times he handed extra ministerial powers to then-prime minister Scott Morrison.

Morrison took on the health, finance, treasury, home affairs, industry, science, energy and resources portfolios between March 2020 and May 2021.

The Governor General’s Program lists in detail the numerous activities of Mr Hurley, including phone calls, official events and luncheons.

Morrison was secretly appointed health minister on March 14, 2020, with the knowledge of then-health minister Greg Hunt.

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Calls for governor general to explain exclusion of Morrison ministries from official diary

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Greens want to know if decision not to disclose extra ministerial powers was David Hurley’s or then prime minister’s

David Hurley’s diary makes no mention of handing extra ministerial powers to Scott Morrison, and the governor general has been called on to explain if this omission was his own decision or a request from the then prime minister.

Morrison, while still prime minister, took on the health, finance, treasury, home affairs, and industry, science, energy and resources portfolios between March 2020 and May 2021.

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Russian embassy spokesperson suggests Australian government unwilling to support espionage-proof building

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Teal independents to attend national EV summit today

Many of the newly elected independents who campaigned on a platform of stronger climate action are set today’s electric vehicle summit in Canberra.

Our support will be delivered through UN agencies to provide food, health and nutrition services, access to safe water and essential support for those at risk, including women and children.

Australia’s continued assistance to Sri Lanka supports our mutual interest in a secure and resilient Indian Ocean and reinforces our 75 year-strong relationship built on cooperation and community connection.

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Morrison ‘amused’ by afternoon of ministry meme merriment but Albanese says it’s no joke

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Shortly after apologising to Karen Andrews for secretly shadowing her ministry, Scott Morrison takes to social media to share jokey posts

Former prime minister Scott Morrison spent much of Thursday night making his own memes or commenting on Facebook jokes about his five secret ministry positions – but his successor as prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says his actions “aren’t a laughing matter”.

Morrison, who has resisted calls for his resignation after being accused of misleading his colleagues and the parliament, began interacting with Facebook jokes about his extra portfolio areas on Thursday afternoon, shortly after making a belated apology to his colleague Karen Andrews for not informing her he had been sworn in to administer her home affairs portfolio.

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Scott Morrison had a penchant for secrecy and centralising power – here are four examples

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Even before we learned the former PM was appointed to five extra ministries without telling anyone, there were warning signs of his need for control

This week we learned Scott Morrison was appointed to five extra ministries without his colleagues’ knowledge – but there were signs earlier in his prime ministership that he wanted to keep information secret and centralise power.

Morrison in 2019 arranged it so that he could hold meetings with anyone and treat them as cabinet-in-confidence. During the pandemic, the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission was set up essentially as a shadow public service.

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Australia news live: John Howard criticises lack of detail on voice to parliament as Anthony Albanese arrives in Torres Strait

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The former prime minister has spoken at a National Press Club event at the Canberra Writers Festival

‘Cringeworthy’: energy minister says Morrison’s media conference was embarrassing

Circling back to Chris Bowen’s interview on ABC Radio, where the discussion on climate policy was followed by questions on the biggest story in Canberra – Scott Morrison’s secret appointment to five additional ministries.

I think to be fair that the governor general was in a difficult position, he has to accept the advice of the government or the PM of the day.

It was pretty pathetic, embarrassing and cringeworthy to be honest.

He should call Andrews.

The right thing to do would be to call all ministers concerned.

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Scott Morrison apologises to Karen Andrews over secret portfolios following Coalition pressure

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Peter Dutton says former PM’s decision to have himself secretly sworn in to five ministries was the ‘wrong call’

Scott Morrison has apologised to the former home affairs minister Karen Andrews for secretly swearing himself in to her portfolio, after she revealed he hadn’t previously reached out to her in the wake of the growing scandal.

The apology came after the opposition leader Peter Dutton said Morrison made “the wrong call” by secretly taking on five ministerial portfolios, with the Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie claiming Morrison’s actions may have breached the Coalition agreement.

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Defiant Morrison resists pressure to resign as governor general says he thought powers would be made public

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David Hurley says not his job to publicise former PM’s extra appointments and he had ‘no reason to believe’ they would remain secret

Scott Morrison says he will not resign from federal parliament after his five secret ministry self-appointments were revealed, defending his decision to keep those ministries concealed because he says he never exercised the powers he had.

Morrison, at a press conference in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon, struck a defiant tone and said he would remain as the member for Cook, despite growing calls from some even inside his own party for him to quit.

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