Prime Minister Scott Morrison was sacked as Managing Director of Tourism Australia in 2006 and he has always refused to say why. One thing is for certain, it had to be massive wrongdoing by Morrison. Why? Because Scott Morrison, who was State Director of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 2000 to 2004, was sacked by a Liberal Party Minister in the Liberal Party John Howard government and they don’t sack one of their own for a minor reason or even a major reason. Morrison’s sacking had to be something, at the very least, bordering on criminal and more than likely actual criminal conduct.
Since 2006 Scott Morrison has refused to answer questions about his sacking and little has been known about the reasons for it until now. Journalist Karen Middleton published an article on Saturday (8/6/19) which she spent 6 months investigating and to me it makes it clear Morrison was likely sacked for deliberate lies and deception in relation to the awarding of government contracts worth $184 million.
Karen Middleton writes in The Saturday Paper:
Thirteen years after Scott Morrison was mysteriously sacked from a senior public sector job as managing director of Tourism Australia, a six-month investigation by The Saturday Paper has created the clearest picture yet of the events surrounding his dismissal.
Documents obtained by The Saturday Paper under freedom of information laws show Morrison received a pay rise less than a month before he was sacked, taking his annual base salary from $318,031 to $332,030, with discretion for his employer to add up to 2.5 percent on top.
Around the time of Morrison’s dismissal, it was suggested he was paid out after having his contract terminated more than a year early. Sources have since confirmed this.
It was long speculated that the sacking was the result of a personality clash between Morrison and Bailey or differences over her plans to restructure the agency.
But late last year, The Saturday Paper uncovered an auditor-general’s report from 2008 examining the handling of three major contracts, which had delivered a scathing assessment of Tourism Australia’s management.
The report provided the first indication as to the real reason Morrison was removed.
The contracts were worth $184 million, and the auditor focused most on the two biggest – those with companies M&C Saatchi for global creative services or advertising campaigns, and Carat for media placement.
The audit report revealed that information had been kept from the board, procurement guidelines breached and private companies engaged before paperwork was signed and without appropriate value-for-money assessments.
Both before and since becoming prime minister in August last year, Scott Morrison has refused to answer questions about why the tourism minister took the unusual step in July 2006 of sacking him as head of the agency. He has also refused to answer questions about the handling of the contracts, which were signed the previous year. He did not respond to questions for this story before time of press. (Click here to read the full article)
It’s starting to become more obvious by the day why Scott Morrison is so keen to crack down on whistleblowers because there are probably a few dozen people in government who know the real reasons for Morrison’s sacking and if they have access to the documents they could bring him down. Morrison has known he is in trouble for 6 months since Karen Middleton started her FOI requests for documents from government departments. That would be an added reason why the Morrison government have gone so hard after whistleblowers in the last few months.
It must be remembered that Scott Morrison has only been Prime Minister since the 24th of August 2018 and not much was known about his background before then so uncovering his history will heat up now with the article by Middleton. There won’t be any turning back and journalists will continue to dig until the truth comes out and even more so since the Morrison government has gone on the attack against journalists with the AFP raids over the last week.
I published an article on the 5th of April titled “Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his dirty deal with the Labor Party and Sam Dastyari” in relation to Morrison’s dirty tactics to be pre-selected for the Liberal Party in the seat of Cook in 2007 and the article helps fill in the pieces considering the new details of his sacking the year before from Tourism Australia. (Click here to read more)
It’s interesting that on Thursday (6/6/19) the Government and AFP trotted out the acting commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, Neil Gaughan, to threaten journalists further and deny that the AFP held back the raids on the ABC and the News Corp journalist’s home until after the federal election. One raid, maybe, but for 2 AFP raids on the media 3 weeks after the election, it is too much to believe it wasn’t a political decision by the AFP not to upset the government. Mr Gaughan didn’t do a very good job and was carved up by a Twitter user who specializes in body language as per below. (In the below tweet BL = body language)
From the pictures, it was not too hard to work out that Neil Gaughan was lying like there was no tomorrow at the press conference which might explain why AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin wasn’t there and he sent out a patsy to take the heat.
Morrison’s Wikipedia page says: “He lost his job in 2006, apparently due to conflict with tourism minister Fran Bailey over the government’s plans to further integrate the agency into the Australian Public Service.” (Click here to read more) That now needs updating given the new revelations.
This story is just starting and the pressure will keep building until something gives.
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I read the Auditor General’s report pre election,and it certainly raises questions about Morrison’s role.There is a puzzling lack of publicly available material though about this matter.The Annual Reports for the agency for the relevant years are missing from the National Library (check it out) and my attempts to get copies pre election have been unsuccessful.This is extremely unusual .
I have not yet applied under FOI legislation-the process is utterly broken. previous attempt to get documents under FOI in another matter were met by the agency concerned claiming that response would be a undue diversion of resources.My appeal to the OAIC was lodged in July 2017 along with a complaint and a request that the OAIC consent to the matter going to the AAT .
The matter has not yet been allocated a review officer -due to (according to the OAIC )resourcing constraints,the complaint not yet registered, and the request to go to the AAT not yet responded to.I wish the Saturday Paper well in its efforts to get documents under FOI but the fact is many agencies just refuse to comply in full knowledge there is no possibility of timely appeal.That said there are certainly questions to be answered about Morrison’s dismissal
When one has to dig for Information under FOI it is normal to receive the irrelevant information. When digging deeper you find a very large impenetrable container guarded by a bunch of lawyers who spin their verbal spells at you. When you inform the political masters, if you are lucky to receive a reply it is always non-sensical. We have a problem in Victoria with a report written by the Victorian Ombudsman on The Legal Services Commissioner. FOI refused to provide the report spouting legal mumbo jumbo, The productivity commission could not get that report, the report became relevant in a criminal report and the judge made a decision that it was not relevant to the case. Until we send a wrecking ball through our judicial system and reconstruct it with honest people who have integrity the truth will always remain hidden and the criminals will continue to plunder from us.
I note from this that it seems that the liberal party have this born to rule mentality and the people who are not of their so called class are not considered as important as their rich masters who fill their coffers and give them fancy titled jobs at inflated salaries so they can keep in with the self-serving crooks in power a
the new Australian way?
great article
there is not a goverment in Australia that not been corupt, Scumoo with false smile and so called christian beliefs. there is an old saying that a snake smiles before it strikes?
Yet another saying from the Bible. “Beware of the Hypocrite, especially the Hypocrite who calls himself a Christian”. I have been referring to this saying since September/October 2015 in regards to Morrison after hearing a Radio interview just after the Abbott ousting, where he wiped his hands clean of turning boats around and offshore detention. His words as part of his attempt to impress the new regressive left Globalist boss Turdbull who stole what he could not earn himself from the Australian people. Morrison said “As Immigration Minister I only did what I was ordered to do by my then PM (Abbott)”. He was trying to intimate that he did not agree with how Sovereign Borders was handled and was just following orders.
Turnbull’s real stance on Sovereign Borders was born out for us all to see when as Communications Minister on Q&A he said ” PM Abbott’s Sovereign Borders Policy is Inhumane and Cruel” so when Turnbull and Julie BIshop co-authored the Global Compact on Migration to hand over the Sovereignty of our Borders to the UN it was no surprise and so obvious that Morrison was well aware and supportive of it. Had it not been for Peter Dutton’s and other Conservatives hard opposition to the Compact, Morrison had every intention of signing.
Australia has ceased to be a democracy. It has never lost it’s original imperialist culture which has no human rights protection. The constitutional monarchy does not prevail in Britain and is a “distant memory” for Australia. The ruling class/culture is thuggery with human rights breaches constantly “covered up”.
he has many labels on his hat…His slate is not clean ….quashed records, dismissal from Nz and Aust tourism positions, No need to go on …the worda are criminal, liar, thief
It does not change anything relating to Scott Morrison in the whole continuous crap-fight.
Julia Gillard was a lying, thieving rat-bag prior to wrecking Australia, Kevin Rudd wasn’t any different, Malcolm Turnbull is merchant banker worth $billions who who didn’t give a damn about the well-being of Australians.
Gought Whitlam, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating gave Australian people’s livelihood and manufacturing to Asia with the increased percent which began at the 7 percent required by The Lima Agreement and pushed it up to 99 percent which we are stuck with today.
It isn’t necessary to dig deep to find the past crooked actions of miscreants who were and are currently politicians, judges and lawyers.
Please fact check on globalisation which drove Aussie companies to manufacture in Asia as an adaptive strategy, no matter what the mandated employment conditions were. Also many companies and manufacturers are making “obscene” profits despite those same conditions. Unions are well into decline and the myth of permanent employment/job security has always been at the whim of the boss, not an entitlement. The main “snake oil” is party politics, powerful lobby groups and current government spin, which gradually undermine the “quiet Australians’” future working lives and wellbeing by sitting on the fence over crucial issues.
You know, we have a lot of political back-and-forth usually over issues that divide us emotionally but ultimately aren’t really that critical to the survival of our Nation, and yet there are always bigger things that rate not a mention from either Parties, even when you’d think they’d be great campaign weapons. This is one of them, Gillard’s corruption is another. Its always interesting what doesn’t rate a mention, as opposed to what does.
Is it not now, time to start a movement to rid the country of these “plebs”.? Most Australians are honest. They put up with all this cr?p from the leaders of our states and towns and Federally. Are the people incapable of rising up their voices and ridding this land of all corruption.? It seems to me that everything we purchase in Australia comes from Asia. A real government would allow our own workers to manufacture most of our needs. Politicians of ALL persuasions are anti Aus. Leaders, in Victoria at least are being lead by a puppet that the union has something over them. It would be lovely to know who has done what wrong in their past that is so bad that they fear exposure.
Let honest people, those that have no skeletons in their cupboards come up and stand and be counted. I personally have had a gut-full of Millionaires and Billionaires running this country to keep their own coffers full and overflowing.
Just saying………
Morrison’s coverup of the death of Reza Barati also needs to be investigated. In fact his whole running of Operation Sovereign Borders does.
Yes. It’s a stain on this nation that a ‘gentle giant’ was dragged from his room on 17 February 2014 and murdered by at least four men, including an Australian and a New Zealander who have never been charged, because they were fliwn back to Australia next day.
It’s absolutely WICKED that Morrison in 2014 not only protected two alleged murderers, but sought to blame an innocent man, Reza Barati, for his own murder, by claiming he was ‘outside’ the Lombrum camp, and ‘leading a riot’. He was hiding in the room he shared with fellow Kurdish refugee, Behnam Satah, as Mr Satah testified in court.
Dutton repeated this contemptible behaviour in 2017, when he uttered lies about the Good Friday attack by drunk PNG naval personnel on the Manus men.
There was NO ‘elevated level’ of tension between locals and refugees over a ‘5 year old boy lured into the camp’. There was NO 5-year-old boy!! There were, two weeks previously, a hungry 10-year-old boy who sat at the gate with guards, while refugees assembled a collection of foodstuffs for him, and, on Good Friday 2017, a dispute over whose turn it was to play at the football field.
Morrison and Dutton have lied repeatedly about refugees. Unforgivable. Why do Australians not ask themselves WHOM the secrecy around Manus and Nauru has served? WHY do Morrison and Dutton want Australians not to know the men and women in detention? Why have they repeatedly referred to innocent refugees as ‘murderers, rapists and paedophiles’?
PM Malcolm Turnbull told Donald Trump in 2016, “After three years, we know everything there is to know about them.
These are NOT bad people. If they hadn’t come by boat, they’d be here.”
In fact, over 1,400 people – women, men, children – who came on the very same boats from Indonesia, were brought to Australia in 2013. They have lived here, unremarked, and unremarkably, ever since.
Three thousand other people – women, men, children – were sent to Nauru and Manus to be made examples of.
Then they were lied about – and the lies keep coming. NO asylum seeker on Manus or Nauru has been convicted of a serious offence. TWO asylum seekers have been charged with serious offences, and one of them is dead.
But these women and men are hidden from our view, even when they come to Australia for medical treatment (that in most cases, has not been delivered!) Why? Why the lies? Why the secrecy?
What are Morrison and Dutton scared of us finding out?
“…because of fraud and theft”
Given that Scott Morrison has definitely got a nerve, he probably pinched one in the crook of his neck when he stuck it out. But then he didn’t manage to stick it out, did he?…because he got the sack. Someone’s got to be summonsed. Does anyone know where this fella called ScoMo lives?
The problem with politicians is that we get the ones who are willing to stand in the various Electorates – and they may not be the best candidate. But why would any business person wastge 6 months of their time on a probably failure whilst their business ran down. So we get the professional politician – the lawyer, the Union leaders, the anti-whatever independents; the side parties of probably good people but who have no brains, no money or no backing. And then once they are elected, they are run by Think Tanks and “Advisors” who promote their own schemes. So where do we go from there. We can’t sack them- the country is broken up with so many little parties that the vote is ridiculous and spread like hundreds of thousands on the birthday biscuit.
A great start would be to have Proportional Representation, both Houses, State & Federal. Our Constitution makes no mention of ‘Parties’. Two-party preferred is an abberation of Democracy. Let all candidates be ‘independents’, elected on their merits by the people they want to represent. All policies openly debated on the floor of the House.
If you review past election poll results vs number of seats, the disparity is appalling. Democracy is NOT ‘A’ or ‘B’…it is meant to be representative of all voters wishes equally.
If there are lots of different views in the population, they need to be reflected in the Parliaments
You describe it well, what a pity the average Ocker cannot understand the benefits of proportional representation.
Two people who make me wonder are “Dastardly” and Tim Wilson. Both come from Think Tanks and are supposed to be up and coming politicians – as Mr Shorten said of “Dastardly” after the hina cheque business “he will go far”. Far far away as far as I am concerned. Anyone who would openly admit he got the Chinese firm to pay that account “because I didn’t want to pay it” is surely short on brains. I don’t mention common sense, because in Canberra it is not that common.
So it took 6 months for this report. What good does it do us 2 weeks after he is elected.
It was interesting, last week, when Mike Rann (ex SA premier) was interviewed at the London memorial service for Bob Hawke. He compared Bob with today’s leader. Bob united the country, unlike today’s rabble of snake oil salesmen who are hell bent on deciding us.
Well it stands to reason because he won an election on lies lies lies.SNEAKY BuggR.Should be impeached.
JimR
How lucky are we that the snake oil manufacturer didn’t win the last election.
“Bob united the country”, yes, he and Keating increased percentage of The Lima Agreement and united the country to stop all local manufacturing and give it to Asia.
Bob as president of the ACTU also forcibly united thousands of employees with unions which forced employers to close their business due to obscenely high penalty rates, shorter working hours, increased leave loading, rostered days off and an extra ‘production day off.
All this destroyed the solid foundation of permanent employment and job security for every hard-working Australian.
Oh dear this guy again. Unions are the only way to protect peoples wages. If Unions were stronger, people would have more money to spend and the economy would be stronger.
As far as my knowledge and personal experience goes, unions don’t do much, once a company decides to shut down manufacturing in it’s own country and shoves it to Asia.
It’s not for nothing that less and less people are (becoming) a member of a union. They don’t see the benefits anymore, as they used to be.
Sorry David, the cost of production in Australia is miles too high. Unions should look after their members conditions, not run this country out of business. If I were a politician (horror), everything would be frozen. Then I would start to look into the costs of production and cut prices very slowly, it would work out that everyone would know what they needed, not wanted, to keep a reasonable lifestyle. I am not, and never have been a union member, they are stuffing this country in a big box.
Only Unions protect workers wages, and now they are disappearing so wages are going down the toilet.
Yes he did all those things because it makes economic sense ! We in Australia cannot manufacture low-value products because we demand a “living wage” and therefore those same goods would then become inflated due to the real wages. We can therefore offshore those products and concentrate on high value goods and services that people are willing to pay. You would have all workers be “serfs” to some business owner who has the power to hire and fire at will and bypass employment guidelines. Screw that !!! The unions fought to have that abolished prior to federation. People first, entities last !!!!
Agencies blast Tourism Oz
By AdNews | 11 March 2005 Comment
SYDNEY: Tourism Australia’s global advertising tender has re-ignited concerns over expensive pitches that may have been sewn up before the tenders even go out.
M&C Saatchi executive chairman Asia Tom Dery and Publicis Mojo CEO Nicholas Davie reportedly met with Tourism Australia executives before the tender was made public.
The rumours have prompted accusations of a “done deal”, echoing similar claims in 2003 when George Patterson Partners secured part of the Telstra account without a pitch. M&C Saatchi has strong connections with Tourism Australia director of marketing Ian Macfarlane from his six years as GM marketing at existing client Tourism New Zealand. The agency picked up the Gold Coast Tourism Bureau (GCTB) account last year while Macfarlane was its CEO.
Publicis Mojo also has strong tourism credentials – it handles the Tourism Victoria and Tourism Queensland accounts and created the famous Paul Hogan campaign. M&C Saatchi sparked controversy in 2003 when it pursued the Medibank Private account while handling competitor MBF. It opened a second-tier agency in Melbourne, DNA, to overcome the conflict. The CEO of an agency pitching for Tourism Australia said it would be unfair to go through a tender if the result is predetermined.
However, he conceded that “government organisations have to tender [and] they often speak to their existing agency and a couple of other agencies to put together a good tender”. Another agency CEO said while it is common industry practice to leverage relationships, “Tom Dery has made it a style of his own”. “A lot of people are over the ways the rules have been bent. It’s not good for the industry,” he said. While Dery did not return calls, it is likely the agency would not hesitate to swap Tourism New Zealand for the much bigger Tourism Australia account, or shunt the Kiwi account into DNA.
“Tom [Dery] does have a relationship with Tourism Australia through lots of different stuff that he does, but there’s been no decision made to pitch for Tourism Australia,” M&C Saatchi spokesperson Andrea Kerekes said. Consultant Colin Wilson-Brown of The Clinic said it’s the nature of the industry for clients to be talking to agencies in the lead-up to account reviews. “I don’t think it’s avoidable,” he said. “People know when a tender is due and they would be kind of lobbying and getting to know [the client] and maintaining relationships. That part of it isn’t avoidable.
The concern would be if the game has been decided before the tender is called.” Tourism Australia managing director Scott Morrison denied any discussions with M&C Saatchi or other agencies had taken place. “We are adhering to a very robust tendering process,” he said. “It’s an open tender. The rules are very clear and they are being strictly applied.” The tender makes it clear the tourism body is seeking a global network to service over 20 key markets, including Australia, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New Zealand. “We are looking for a global agency that has a strong and vibrant presence in each of the key markets,” Morrison said.
The creative and media accounts have been split, and Morrison said as there are different requirements for the media business, a global agency network may not be the best solution. “We don’t want to short-change ourselves on local media buying knowledge,” he said. Whybin TBWA and Brand Architecture Australia created the most recent Brand Australia campaign but the account now up for grabs in a new contract, bringing together the regional accounts.
Pitch timeline
May 2003: Patts grabs Telstra without a pitch Nov 2003 M&C forms DNA to keep Medibank & MBF Jul 2004: Suncorp overloads pitch list Feb 2005: Insurance Council of Australia pitches and then recants Mar 2005: Agencies accuse Tourism Australia of “dead” pitch
Read more at http://www.adnews.com.au/BE3849E4-A208-4323-952078884215B1E4#3bJ2E0BK0xqtTGDL.99
The constituents of Australia have for the last 10 years trusted and endowed their faith and integrity to the Nations management hoping needfully that each offer of good intention by politicians seeking seats in govt would be for and in favour of the national good.
However, as times seem to topple into an abyss of mismanagement, concealed corruption and deceit, we are feeling the sting of a hand slap across the face, as we have watched, and still see our countries valuable utilities, National owned Corporations, and Agricultural lands being disposed of for quick overseas cash, no doubt some involving handouts, our energy provision is out of public hand and is in almost irreversible dissaray.
Time scientifically stands still for nothing and no one, yet Australia’s clock is slowly grinding to a halt.
One of the proudest nations on the world,is almost on its knees, and our conceited and concealing and erroneous Politicians take on the role of “Nero”, and just cunningly keep playing the fiddle, as Rome burns.
Rome in iyr case, is Australia!
Australians keep voting for the right wing party,which only seems to care about their position and wealth.
Madison,
great reply, but the problem is ingrained with politicians of ALL party’s.
Not a good person in the castle unfortunately.
Madison, you are incorrect by using Australians collectively which gives meaning to, ‘every person of voting age in Australia only vote continuously for the right wing party’.
Australians of voting age vote for their own choice from each party indicated on the voting document.
The other incorrect part of the sentence is ‘the right wing party only seem to care about their position and wealth’.
Something which ‘seems’ to be happening from your point of view is not in fact what happens in reality because every Australian is cared for in various ways by the elected politicians in the administration of basic infrastructure.
Police, paramedics, doctors, nurses, fire service and all other government public services do not discriminate about the ‘position and wealth’ of individuals.
Hmmmmm. You’re leaving out 1 little but important fact. Public services and public servants are sustained with taxpayer funding. They are not doing us a favour, they are doing what they are obliged to do. Deliver public services to the people who pay for it. And on that point, we are not getting very good value for money, are we? We’re paying for Ferrari services, but being driven around in a Datsun. Which one of the grubs has our change?
We need to re-open the investigation in the interest of the people, and expose the fraud.
Re-open the investigation and report the finding to the public, as it is in the national interest to show credibility of our political leaders.
Let’s stop the insanity of “government”. We don’t need leaders, we are capable of ruling ourselves. Imprison the corrupt politicians. Nothing has improved since “government” was formed, yet people continue to vote for these treasonous and corrupt grubs.
Morrison is still employing the same corrupt practices of issuing contracts without correct processes or tendering. Somehow he has been able to get away with corruption and why is that so when he was sacked from Tourism Australia for this behaviour. This man and many of his cohorts in this Government are very dodgy and appear to be criminals
Where there is smoke there is fire. And there is certainly a lot of smoke around Mr Morrison’s sacking.
if they can impeach the president of USA sack this thief
They may be able to impeach him, it’s still not certain yet, bit because he still has support from the majority of his party, he will still be able to stay president. I always thought that impeachment meant the end of presidency, but that seems not to be anymore these days. Only with Nixon.
One can say: what is then the point of impeachment? I really don’t know anymore.
What I do know, is that the same would happen with Scott Morrison, if we were to have an impeachment procedure. The only way to get rid of him is early elections after summer holidays. But who is going to call for them?
I agree with Terry.
Was Scummo a Pentacostal / ‘faux-Christian’ *before* what’s mentioned in this article? Or did that ‘lifestyle’ emerge in the hope to hide sins?
This is a terrible stench and stain on Jesus Christ”s true church and it”s real believers.People are called to know him personally not to “know” about him, even the devil knows about him. Thankyou people for exposing the truth about it all. May God Bless you all.
It’s not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath”
― Aeschylus