Scott Morrison was sacked as the head of Tourism Australia in 2006 in mysterious circumstances which he has always refused to explain but he also left as the head of Tourism New Zealand in a hurry in 2000 with similar complaints about his performance and conduct. Scott Morrison has done a good job of concealing who he is from the Australian public, but more and more is starting to be revealed and it paints a disturbing picture and I think this article helps put one more piece of the jigsaw puzzle together. 

Firstly, to re-cap what I have previously written about Morrison’s sacking at Tourism Australia:

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. (Click here to read more)

I quoted an article from The Saturday Paper which said:

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. (Click here to read the full article)

The 2008-2009 Auditor-Generals report on Tourism Australia – (Click here to read the full 2008-2009 Auditor-Generals report on Tourism Australia)

The 2008-2009 Auditor-Generals report on Tourism Australia covers the time Scott Morrison was Managing Director and the $184 million of suspect contracts he was responsible for negotiating and says:

At paragraph 13 it says: The majority of Tourism Australia’s marketing activities are delivered through its major global contracts for creative development and media placement services. Digital services, including the tourism online gateway australia.com, are also delivered under contract arrangements. These three contracts consumed approximately thirty-five percent of Tourism Australia’s total budget between 2004–05 and 2006–07, underlining the importance of Tourism Australia having effective processes for selecting and managing its service providers

At paragraph 14 it says: “Tourism Australia’s policies and guidelines provide a sound framework for undertaking complex procurements and managing its contracts. However, relevant guidelines were not followed when procuring its global creative development and media placement services and, to a lesser extent, digital services. In particular, procurement plans were not developed and the risks to the successful completion of these procurements were not assessed.”

At paragraph 16 it says: The services provided under these major contracts, which to date are valued at in excess of $184 million, are fundamental to the success of Tourism Australia’s marketing initiatives. The contracts accurately reflected the services to be provided. However, the media placement and creative development contracts did not include performance information that would enable Tourism Australia to evaluate the effectiveness of the services provided even though, as part of a review of the draft contracts, this was recommended. 

Mr Unaccountable Scott Morrison was in full flight at Tourism Australia after a similar performance at Tourism New Zealand

Scott Morrison in 2005

Scott Morrison at Tourism New Zealand

“Mr Morrison, an Australian, helped set up the New Zealand Office of Tourism and Sport in the 1990s and “He left with a year to go on his contract in March 2000.” (Click here to read more)

In June 2000 the NZ Herald reported:

The days of the Office of Tourism and Sport, a power-base of former Tourism Minister Murray McCully, may be numbered.

The Prime Minister has ordered a report from officials on the office, which was approved by cabinet, and on a body Mr McCully privately set up, the Tourism and Sport Ministerial Advisory Board.

The State Services Commission and Internal Affairs are looking at the office after criticisms in the Auditor-General’s report on tourism last week.

And if Labour is part of the next government, it will abolish the office. Labour’s sports and state services spokesman, Trevor Mallard, says the Office of Tourism and Sport was set up last year “to push the political interests of McCully.”

“It was designed to provide McCully with the advice McCully wanted and a method of sorting out organisations without McCully’s hands getting dirty.”

The office is a semi-autonomous body under the Department of Internal Affairs. The director, Scott Morrison, tenders advice to the Minister of Tourism and the Minister of Sport, Fitness and Leisure. The office also oversaw a damning consultants’ report on the Tourism Board’s performance for Mr McCully, without input from the Tourism Board.

Confusion over roles of the various bodies – the Tourism Board, the Office of Tourism and Sport, and the advisory board – contributed to the breakdown in relationship between the Tourism Board and Mr McCully, the Auditor-General, David Macdonald, said in his report.

Mr Mallard said the way the Office of Tourism and Sport operated was one of the reasons Mr McCully had got into trouble.

And a key reason for that was that it was run by Mr Morrison, an Australian who was seen as Mr McCully’s “hard man.”

Australian standards of public sector behaviour “are lower than ours,” said Mr Mallard.

New Zealanders were much more traditional and had a Westminster-type approach. That meant more things on paper, more concern about process, and being less bombastic.

“My experience with Australian politicians is that rules and ethics are not as important to them as they are to New Zealanders.”

Mr Morrison said he did not want to respond to Mr Mallard’s personal comments. “I have no interest in New Zealand politics.” (Click here to read the full article)

Given the above and the fact that he still had a year to go on his contract everything points to Scott Morrison being tapped on the shoulder by the New Zealand government and being told to resign or be sacked. 

In March 2000 Scott Morrison left Tourism New Zealand and moved back to Australia where, after a brief stint at KPMG, he was appointed as the State Director of the New South Wales Liberal Party until 2004. In 2004 he was parachuted into the role of Managing Director of Tourism Australia in a blatantly political appointment until even the Liberal Party couldn’t handle his dodgy conduct any further and they sacked him in 2006.

In 2007 Scott Morrison did his secret dirty deal with Sam Dastyari and stabbed Michael Towke in the back. Mr Towke was the pre-selected candidate for the seat of Cook and was in Morrison’s way so false rumours were spread and the state executive of the Liberal Party refused to endorse Mr Towke’s preselection after the rumours were published by News Corp. A second ballot was held, and Scott Morrison won. Mr Towke successfully sued News Corp. 

Scott Morrison’s time at Tourism New Zealand, Tourism Australia and his preselection to parliament all show unanswered allegations of abuse of processes, procedures and total unaccountability which is exactly how Scott Morrison is running the country and performing as Prime Minister.

When Scott Morrison stands in front of the media refusing to answer questions it should not surprise as he has a long history of refusing to be accountable but now, he is the Prime Minister he owes it to the whole country to answer questions.

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