Scott Morrison’s right-hand man in the COVID19 crisis Dr Brendan Murphy was caught on video illegally coaching a witness at the Aged Care Royal Commission on Wednesday (12/8/20) as per the video below. It should have been all over the news and Dr Brendan Murphy who was until recently the Chief Medical Officer, and is now the Secretary of the Federal Health Department, should be charged with contempt of the Royal Commission, if not charged by the police.

The below video is the Secretary of the Federal Health Department Dr Brendan Murphy telling the health department’s deputy secretary for ageing and aged care Michael Lye what answer to give in relation to a question from the senior counsel assisting the commission, Peter Rozen, QC at the Aged Care Royal Commission. See at the 3-second mark where he covered his mouth and spoke.

(The video was copied from the Twitter account of Rick Morton @SquigglyRick Senior Reporter: The Saturday Paper. To my knowledge no other News companies have published the video)

In every court of law and every Royal Commission when a witness gives evidence, they always take either the oath or affirmation and if anyone tries to coach a witness they would be charged by the court and/or police. So why has Dr Brendon Murphy walked free? All the media should have reported this but sadly few have. The Conversation website is one of the few and reported:

Michael Lye, the health department’s deputy secretary for ageing and aged care, unsuccessfully tried to divert to Murphy a question about Australia faring badly on aged care deaths compared to other countries. Rozen insisted Lye answer, saying sharply, “No, I don’t want professor Murphy to answer the question, Mr Lye. I’m asking you. You told us you were the senior most official with aged care responsibility within the Commonwealth department of health”.

In one embarrassing moment for the federal officials, Rozen drew attention to Murphy prompting Lye when the latter was struggling under the questioning.

Rozen told both Lye and Murphy, as they periodically veered into wider comments, to just answer his questions. (Click here to read more)

When Brendon Murphy covered his mouth and whispered to Lye the answer to the question it is key evidence that Dr Murphy knew what he was doing was at the very least wrong if not illegal otherwise why would he cover his mouth to conceal it? It is the action of someone who is morally and ethically bankrupt and thinks they are above the law and shows that Dr Murphy has no credibility at all let alone to his job. 

Scott Morrison wears a face mask

Scott Morrison wore a face mask on the 2nd of August 2020 and posted on his Instagram account: “Had to pop out to pick up a few things here in Sydney, so followed the NSW Premier’s advice announced earlier today (and put a mask on in the car before heading into the shops). Protects others you come in contact with in enclosed areas, in particular the retail salespeople just doing their jobs. Not a lot to ask. All in this together.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison wearing a face mask

It raises the question of why has Scott Morrison never been seen in a mask at media conferences? He has only ever been seen in one where he said he was going to the shop in Sydney on the 2/8/20 & he took a selfie. He probably hopped in the car, took the photo & then hopped out. 

If Scott Morrison really wanted to promote people wearing a face mask he would show-up to media conferences wearing one like Dan Andrews does every day.

The Ruby Princess Report

While Dr Brendon Murphy might think he has gotten away with coaching Michael Lye on how to answer a question while My Lye was giving evidence at the Royal Commission he might want to look at the Ruby Princess Report which was published on Friday (14/8/20) where Commissioner Bret Walker has given Scott Morrison an uppercut and said at section 1.53 on page 28:

The one fly in the ointment so far as assistance to this Commission goes, is the stance
of the Commonwealth. I hasten to exclude the lawyers for the Commonwealth,
whose written assistance and production of materials are very much appreciated,
in the circumstances. Those circumstances are dominated by the assertion on the
Commonwealth’s part of an immunity from any compulsory process of a State’s
Special Commission of Inquiry. A Summons to a Commonwealth officer to attend and
give evidence about the grant of pratique for the Ruby Princess was met with steps
towards proceedings in the High Court of Australia. Quite how this met the Prime
Minister’s early assurance of full co-operation with the Commission escapes me. (Click here to read the whole report)

Maybe the Aged Care Royal Commissioner will unload on Dr Murphy when he finishes his report the same way Bret Walker has unloaded on Scott Morrison.

Dumb and Dumber

Scott Morrison and Dr Brendon Murphy are like the 2 lead characters in the movie Dumb and Dumber trying to avoid responsibility for the COVID19 crisis in Aged Care facilities in Victoria and Australia. 

The federal government has responsibility for Aged Care and on Saturday (15/8/20) Victorian Premier Dan Andrews stated that there are 5 residents in State-run Aged Care facilities with the Coronavirus but over 2000 residents with the Coronavirus in private Aged Care facilities which are overseen by the federal government.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety was established on 8 October 2018 but has spent the last few days looking at Covid19. On Monday (10/8/20) Peter Rozen QC, senior counsel assisting the royal commission, said that “Australia’s aged care sector was “underprepared” to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak and federal authorities had no specific plan for it” and “while much was done to prepare the health sector more generally for the pandemic, “neither the Commonwealth Department of Health nor the aged care regulator developed a COVID-19 plan specifically for the aged care sector”.” (Click here to read more)

The Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians is Richard Colbeck and I’ve never heard of him. Why isn’t he doing media conferences every day as the Premiers do? Apparently he did one this week for a few minutes to rebut the Royal Commission but other than that he is in hiding.

Federal government Ministers, under instructions from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, have been dropping the boot into Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews claiming he rejected help from the Australian Defence Force. That is a dispute between Daniel Andrews and the federal government that they can deal with. But whatever Daniel Andrews has or hasn’t done doesn’t excuse the failure of Scott Morrison and the federal government.

There is no excuse for why the Australian Defence Force was not sent into the Aged Care facilities to stop people from dying. The ADF have sent staff, including medical staff to hospitals, to help in many areas and the federal government control both the ADF and Aged Care and could have easily sent ADF staff to Aged Care homes if they wanted to.

At the time of writing this article, I have just come across a federal government media release from the Health Department dated the 13th of August 2020 outlining what they are doing for Aged Care which includes “20 ADF staff are today being trained in PPE usage and compliance and will be deployed to facilities next week. More training sessions will continue into the coming weeks with the support of the ADF.” (Click here to read the media release) Why wasn’t this done months ago, not 4 days after the government was embarrassed publicly by Peter Rozen QC at the Royal Commission?

The federal government are playing catch-up after hundreds of lives have been lost and many more will die in Aged Care and someone has to take responsibility.

In the space of five days, Scott Morrison and his government have been smashed publicly by Peter Rozen QC, senior counsel assisting the Aged Care Royal Commission, and Ruby Princess Inquiry Commissioner Bret Walker which means Scott Morrison and the government are consistent in their failures regarding the COVID19 crisis.

The perfect storm is here for Morrison and Murphy. Their lies and deception won’t help them one bit except make their situation worse. They would want to start doing their jobs real fast as pointing the finger at others will not cut it anymore.

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