Former Prime Minister was found to have given “untrue” evidence under oath at the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme which means he can now add perjurer to his long list of crimes.
It is well known Scott Morrison was sacked as Managing Director of Tourism Australia in 2006 and as the head of Tourism New Zealand in 2000 (Click here to read more) so failing as Minister for Social Services should not surprise anyone.
Robodebt was an illegal compliance program, implemented by Scott Morrison in 2015/2016 as Minister for Social Services, which asserted that welfare recipients owed debts to the commonwealth on the basis of assumptions including using their annual income to estimate their average weekly income.
The Robodebt Royal Commission was established on 18 August 2022 to enquire into the establishment, design and implementation of the Robodebt scheme; the use of third-party debt collectors under the Robodebt scheme; concerns raised following the implementation of the Robodebt scheme; and the intended or actual outcomes of the Robodebt scheme. (Click here to read more)
The Royal Commission published its Report on Friday (7/7/23). (Click here to read the report)
At page 102 of the Royal Commission findings it says, “The Commission rejects as untrue Mr Morrison’s evidence that he was told that income averaging as contemplated in the Executive Minute was an established practice and a “foundational way” in which DHS worked.”
It is one thing for a politician to be called a liar but another when a Royal Commission finds they gave evidence under oath that was “untrue”. What makes it worse is the very sad story of the damage that Robodebt did to many lives, yet the likes of Scott Morrison still couldn’t care less.
Scott Morrison issued a statement on Friday, while on holidays in Europe, responding to the Royal Commission findings taking no responsibility and blaming everyone else. (Click here to read his statement)
At page 3 of the report Royal Commissioner Catherine Holmes, SC says in a letter to the Governor-General David Hurly:
I have provided to you an additional chapter of the report which has not been included in the bound report and is sealed. It recommends the referral of individuals for civil action or criminal prosecution. I recommend that this additional chapter remain sealed and not be tabled with the rest of the report so as not to prejudice the conduct of any future civil action or criminal prosecution.
I am also submitting relevant parts of the additional chapter of the report to heads of various Commonwealth agencies; the Australian Public Service Commissioner, the National Anti-Corruption Commissioner, the President of the Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory and the Australian Federal Police.
Kath Madgwick wrote to both then Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister Stuart Robert after her son Jarrad died over an illegal Robodebt. Kath Madgwick revealed, that neither of them even bothered to respond. “Not even a sorry for your loss” as per the video of evidence Ms Madgwick at the Royal Commission:
I published an article on the 15th of December 2022 titled “Scott Morrison declares he is a fully qualified lawyer and barrister at the Robodebt Royal Commission”, which shows Scott Morrison’s manner on the witness stand at the Royal Commission, that starts off:
Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave evidence at the Robodebt Royal Commission on Wednesday (14/12/22) and he had lost none of his previous form. It was lies, lies and more lies although this time he was under oath not that it slowed Morrison’s lies down for a second.
The video below is Scott Morrison being put in his place several times by Commissioner Catherine Holmes SC and the Counsel assisting Justin Greggery KC when Morrison tried the same routines he uses with journalists.
At one point Commissioner Catherine Holmes asks Morrison: What do you understand was the legal basis requiring someone who had not been on Government benefits for 6 months, 3 years or longer to confirm or deny ATO data which said they had a debt?
Morrison replied by talking like he was a lawyer or a barrister and started quoting the relevant legislation, but he was wrong and Commissioner Catherine Holmes SC carved Scott Morrison up and put him in his place.
Put simply the Robodebt scheme was an unlawful method of automated debt assessment and recovery employed by Services Australia as part of its Centrelink payment compliance program. On the 29th of May 2020, the Morrison Government announced that it would scrap the debt recovery scheme, with 470,000 wrongly-issued debts to be repaid in full.
Initially, the total sum of the repayments was estimated to be A$721 million, however in November 2020 this figure expanded to A$1.2 billion after the Australian government settled a class-action lawsuit before it could go to trial. (Click here to read more)
Just so there is no confusion Scott Morrison didn’t actually declare he is a fully qualified lawyer and barrister, but he tried to act like he was. (Click here to read the article)
The SMH reports:
Royal commissioner Catherine Holmes, SC, made damning findings about the conduct of former Coalition ministers charged with overseeing the four-year welfare debt recovery program in her report handed down on Friday. The scheme, she said, was linked to a number of suicides, plagued by collusion and dishonesty and had little to no regard for the “vulnerable cohorts it would affect”.
The government is pledging accountability, with Government Services Minister Bill Shorten saying he felt conflicted over the secrecy of criminal and civil referrals recommended by the commission, and Albanese saying he ultimately wanted a sealed chapter of its report containing the referrals to be revealed. Holmes did not say which individuals had been recommended for referral for further investigation.
Holmes also accused former human services minister Alan Tudge of an “abuse of power” for pursuing welfare recipients in the media to deflect from mounting commentary over the scheme’s issues.
She said former social services minister Christian Porter “could not rationally have been satisfied of the legality of the scheme” and former government services minister Stuart Robert went “well beyond supporting government policy” as a cabinet minister in defending the scheme despite knowing its flaws. (Click here to read more)
The Royal Commission says the below about recommendations and referrals at page 659 of the report:
The recommendations made are collected at the beginning of this report. I hope that they are of use. At the least, I am confident that the Commission has served the purpose of bringing into the open an extraordinary saga, illustrating a myriad of ways that things can go wrong through venality, incompetence and cowardice.
In addition to the recommendations, I have made referrals of information in respect of a number of individuals to four different authorities for further investigation. I do not propose to name the entities to which I have made referrals, because it would only lead to speculation about who had been referred where, which would almost certainly be wrong.
Above are the politicians who gave evidence at the Royal Commission. Starting at top left going clockwise: Scott Morrison, Marise Payne, Malcolm Turnbull, Alan Tudge, Christian Porter and Stuart Robert.
People think Scott Morrison has gotten away with his corruption and crimes, but he can’t even get another job now which he has been trying to do for months. With the Robodebt Royal Commission report stating that Scott Morrison is in effect a perjurer he will find it even harder to get another job so we might be stuck with “Scotty from Marketing” in parliament at least until the next election which would be the ultimate humiliation for him.
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Categories: Prime Minister Scott Morrison
I love the headline.
Unfortunately, nothing new in these reports about certain MPs, and some former MPs, best described as compulsive liars and nothing better than criminals who should be charged and if convicted, jailed for the term of their natural life, ie never released…but history shows it doesn’t matter which side is in power, they all stick together and froth at the mouth how bad the other side is, but when it comes to the crunch, ensure the public pays their legal bills and in reality, stick together..
And he will walk away with a massive pension laughing all the way to the bank.
Bill Shorten exposing others, what a complete joke, he is right up there with Scomo as a corrupt politician.
Nothing will happen to the Public Service that has become grossly corrupt.
Just another talk fest and feeding frenzy for lawyers.
Nothing will change, never does.
All just smoke and mirrors.
Sick of all the corrupt politicians and public servants. Unaccountable swill.
Watching The Commission I observed that many of the senior public servants being questioned demonstrate classic passive aggressive behaviours . Clearly obsfucating , denying , deflecting with an underlying fury at being challenged . They would have been appalling to work for and even worse if their decisons had been challenged in the work place
When will a Commission of Enquiry begin into the ATO into their means of how they do “their ” business on us
Totally agree with that. The list of small businesses especially who have been driven into bankruptcy and ruin by ruthless ATO tactics is very long. Robert Gottliebson of The Australian has written many columns highlighting ATO’s abuse of power. It’s time the blowtorch was turned on the ATO as it was on the banks. The trouble is all politicians depend on the ATO to raise the money required for their various projects through which they hope to get re-elected etc. It’s unlikely that would bite the hand that feeds them.
I find it funny how Shorten and Albo want to release the names of the people the Commission has named in the sealed documents because of public interest but fought tooth and nail to stop this happening with the weak, hamstrung Corruption Commission they have set up. Albo and Shorten are just career politicians with their own interests at heart and damn what the public wants.
The lot are corrupt hypocrites and nothing will change.
Labor, Liberal just a business no interest in working for the public.
It’s not just the executive government and the SES level of the public service which are rotten.
So are the police, the DPP, the judiciary and the intelligence agencies.
The sealed section of the commissioner’s report needs to be unsealed real soon.
Otherwise, the culprits will won’t be brought to justice.
Name them and shame them now.
Not much point naming these grubs, they have no shame, soon as they leave Parliament they quickly get a highly paid job in the private sector and continue on in their corrupt ways, in stark contrast to other sections of society, eg if a footballer is alleged to have committed a crime, his photo and name appears on the front page of the media, doesn’t matter if he’s innocent or guilty, yet we have these past and present serving MPs at State and Federal level who are protected by the old media and their corrupt mates in the judiciary, and all their corrupt behaviour is quietly swept under the carpet and soon forgotten, unfortunately only a small percentage of the population bother to read alternative news outlets but rather believe the tripe dished out by News/7/9/10 and worst of all, the despicable Sky outlets, apathy rules supreme.
I politely disagree with you on this. Public exposure now will prejudice criminal and civil proceedings against these crooks.
Every other type of alleged criminal has public exposure before trial. What makes politicians and public servants different?
Shane, the Commissioner saw fit to arrange things this way. I think it likely she had good legal reasons for doing so. I certainly believe that there are a large class of misconduct items that should be publicized, especially breaches of statutory and Parliamentary obligations that do not have criminal charges attached. We saw this with Gladys Berejiklian. On this score I agree with you.
Shane, the Commissioner does not have the power to bring criminal charges — the DPP does. Then the charges can go public.
Naming the people now would have zero impact on them getting a fair trial as people are named as suspects before they are charged by the police all the time. And the DPP are just as corrupt as the AFP and they will sweep the charges under the carpet if they can.
The people are fragmented. Form specific interest groups to take legal action.
Scumo has confirmed what a well oiled psycho he is.
Morrison has rejected the Commission findings as unsound. He is effectively saying that another Commissioner, properly advised and receiving the same evidence, would have reached different conclusions. This is an appalling nonsense and a base slur against Commissioner Holmes that has no credibility whatsoever to anyone who witnessed the Commission hearings. The Liberal Party should be put on notice to either demand of Morrison that he quit Parliament or, if he chooses to stay, that he be removed from Party membership. There is no way they should be permitted to endorse this grubby Morrison slur. On the other hand, having him repeat this denialist garbage in Parliament over the new few years will guarantee a massive boot in the ass to the Libs at the next election. This guy needs to be out now.
If you want to get rich, get into politics.
Why do so many make it a career? Easy money.
Mark. 8:36 – For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
So sad. So disgusting. But then again, at no time did Morrison ever look, sound or behave in any way beyond his teenage years when he walked around in his gut bursting t-shirt, bearing the phrase ‘drink until you want me’. All he did was retire the t-shirt for a suit. Even back then, he was so fully confident that nobody could smell the real scomo. Sadder still, he is just one of many poorly educated, sociopathic narcs, past and pesent, weezil-greeezing the walls, floors and doorways of our bull crap bunkers a.k.a. our houses of parliament. Oh dear. My heart so aches for all the families affected by this criminal collective. May you all find solace.
Scomo, rotten to the core.I would love to think that he will pay for it someday, but,the reality is that nothing will happen and he’ll fade away with his overly generous tax payer funded super.
A couple of months ago, May 2023, there was a suggestion Morrison is ready to move into a post political role with a UK defence business connected with AUKUS.
Interesting given Morrison was responsible for engineering the AUKUS agreement in the first place.
Plenty of money in AUKUS to employ many Liberal ( and maybe Labor ) mates. Thanks Labor.
It is apparent that Scott Morrison is victim to a lack of formal Job and Position descriptions for, at the least, Lawyers, Barristers, Politicians and Public Servants. His prevarication, superciliousness, and smugness during cross-examination shows malfeasance, misfeasance and criminal negligence, at least on his part. This Royal Commission will allow many other Politicians and Public Servants to strive to cover up their own blatant, corrupt behavior in the smoke and mirrors of this one lengthy report with its secret codicil. Our Democratic Government was based on open Governance and honesty exhibited by those the people choose to represent us. We are at all times their employer but without recourse to the power to recall parliament.
What’s contrary to reason is Bill Shorten who fought so hard to establish the royal commission and the class action said that the “findings proved that the previous government and senior public servants “gaslighted the nation” and betrayed their trust.” Bill Shorten himself as a former union leader, Labor Leader who was running for Prime Ministership and currently a senior front beach senator had broken the trust of Australians on many occasions, which was exposed during a Royal Commission. “Gaslighting” which was a word rarely used at that time would have described Shorten unboundedly.
The robotdebt scheme was a serious issue and needed considerable investigation, and at one earlier stage a court suggested the scheme was more likely a “stuff up” than “conspiracy,” which meant the government had been shamefully stupid, not shamefully bad.
It is clearly perceptible Albanese and Shorten are using this as a political tool to get as much mileage from it as they can, to the point they are placing attention on damaging the Liberal Party, rather than accentuating attention on the 433,000 people who were caught up in the scheme with many being affected mentally and financially. About 200,000 people had been substantiated they did owe money back.
Agree 100% Ruth – Bill Shorten is in the same league as Scomo – a low life who will use any means to further himself and his gang of criminals. Politics attracts criminals, lawyers and failures. Nothing will come of this Royal Commission as nothing will come from the Corruption Commission, just look at the history of the person running the Corruption Commission – enough said.
Public Disclosure has to be made regarding every complaint of Corruption. Albo and Shorten want to hide the facts.
The Bin Chicken would still be in power if she had fronted the new Corruption Commission.
Of course Morrison, Tudge, Robert, Porter and could add Turnbull are nasty, totally lacking empathy and morality regarding Robodebt. However demonising welfare recipients ( as well as asylum seekers) has been the agenda for both Liberal and Labor Parties.
During the Robodebt years Whistleblowers spoke out ( and we know neither party supports whistleblowers) but where was any support for them?
Many fake debt recipients contacted their Labor MPs and Labor leader Shorten but received no answers or help.
We know there were 26 calls during that time for a Royal Commission into the Banking and Financial Services by Labor.
But 0 calls for a Royal Commission into Robodebt. No policy by Labor to investigate the fraud for the 2016 or 2019 election. Only after Shorten lost in 2019 he called in Gordon Legal. Could have done it before, May have saved some lives, mental anguish. But chose not to….
And something very curious. Kathryn Campbell was in charge of the human services department from March 2011 to September 2017, and then social services until July 2021, two departments that were central to Robodebt.
A few weeks after the Albanese government won on May 21, 2022 she was appointed to a job as an advisor to AUKUS in June 2022 on $900,000/year.
A reward from Labor for supporting Robodebt and the Morrison government it seems. As well as showing even then the support Labor had for AUKUS. And Labor could rely on her.
I wonder which Labor MP supported this, though it seems it was from the PM’s office.
Give Kathryn Campbell enough rope.
Yes let Kathryn Campbell manage our 400,000,000,000 dollars of AUKUS money. What a complete joke Canberra is – all about looking after each other and stealing as much money as possible. Albo, Shorten all of Labor knew what Kathryn Cambell was up to and did nothing.
Labor, Liberal, Public Service, AFP all disgracefully corrupt to the core.
Bill Shorten couldn’t lie straight in bed, just another one of the Labor Lying Lawyers Club.
Royal Commissions never achieve anything. How many bankers went to gaol – none.
Canberra – just a home to criminals and con men and women.
Albo actually sounds mentally impaired when he is interviewed. He forgets he did not win the election, Scomo the creep lost it, praise the lord and send some more young boys.