CASHLESS DEBIT CARD 2022: make no mistake, Morrison will continue with his relentless - in his eyes seemingly 'righteous' - push to control the incomes and minutiae of daily living of as many ordinary Australians as he can convince Parliament to punitively define as ignorant, poor, deviant or Aboriginal at risk

On 17 December 2020 provisions of the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Continuation of Cashless Welfare) Bill 2020 received assent and were incorporated into Social Security (Administration) Act 1999.

The principal purpose of that bill was to widen the scope of the Cashless Debit Card Trial, rename the trial as a “program” and establish it as an national ongoing social security program.

Those pentecostal buddies, Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison and then Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Minister for Minister for Government Services & still LNP MP for Fadden Stuart Robert, along with another member of the ‘Morrison Group’, Minister for Families and Social Services & Liberal Senator for South Australia Anne Rushton, were able to widen the scope of the trial & rename the Cashless Debit Card trial a “program”.

However, although the entire Northern Territory is now a Cashless Debit Card Program Area participation in the scheme is voluntary and despite sustained effort on the part of federal government the Cashless Debit Card Trial remains a trial with a sunset date of 31 December 2022 in all other remaining trial sites.

The Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has been attempting to create a coercive, punitive, cashless payment system for government pensions, benefits, allowances and one-off payments since 2014 and, they have become quite skilled at political & legislative incremental creep.

Make no mistake, Morrison, the man who since at least 2006 has been voicing his belief that this is what the Lord wants … He wants me to become prime minister and who as prime minister seeks signs from God on how to proceed during an election campaign as well as secretly ‘laying hands on’ and praying for people he personally comes into contact with, will continue with his relentless - in his eyes seemingly 'righteous' - push to control the incomes and minutiae of daily living of as many ordinary Australians as he can convince Parliament to punitively define as ignorant, poor, deviant or Aboriginal at risk.

BACKGROUND

#  7 News, 16 March 2021:

A $2.5 million government report into the cashless debit card is inconclusive on whether it reduces harm from alcohol, drugs and gambling, but has found people on the welfare cards are ashamed and embarrassed.

“It’s ostrich policy - put your head in the sand,” Labor MP Linda Burney told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

“We do not believe there should be mandatory, universal application of a cashless debit card because people are on Centrelink benefits.”

Social Services Minister Anne Ruston made the decision to extend the trial sites without any evidence and without waiting for the report, Ms Burney said.

Commissioned in 2018, the University of Adelaide’s report on the cashless debit card looked at whether alcohol and drug use, violence and gambling reduced during trials of the card in Ceduna, East Kimberley and the Goldfields but found no conclusive evidence.

“In many cases we found the reality to be more complex and nuanced than can be expressed as clear cut answers,” research head Kostas Mavromaras said in the report.

Ms Burney said the research “tells us nothing and is a complete waste of time”.

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said the card is “racist and discriminatory” and should be abandoned.

“These trials were always about targeting First Nations peoples, stigmatising people on income support and those with addiction issues rather than addressing the underlying causes of disadvantage,” Senator Siewert said.

“The evaluation itself notes the difficulty in evaluating the so-called trials because they were never set up to be properly evaluated.”….

# Cashless Debit Card (CDC) Extended Rollout 2021: Briefing Paper March 2021

# Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs Legislation Committee (Nov 2019) Inquiry into the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Income Management to Cashless Debit Card Transition) Bill 2019 [Provisions], Submission 1, Professor Matthew Gray & Dr. Rob Bray, ATTACHMENT A: Bray, J Rob (October 2019), ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, “Measuring the social impact of Income Management in the Northern Territory – an updated analysis”:

Executive Summary

A stated objective of income management in the Northern Territory, both under the Northern Territory Emergency Response, and through ‘New Income Management’ (NIM) has been to improve outcomes for individuals, their families and the communities they live in. The 2014 evaluation of NIM reported that it could not identify any impacts in its analysis of social outcomes that could be attributed to the policy.

This paper seeks to re‐examine this question using data, where possible from before the initial introduction of income management under the NTERIM, to the most recently available.

The magnitude of the program in the Northern Territory, with one third of Indigenous people aged 15 years and over directly being subject to the policy is such that to the extent the program makes an impact this should be apparent at the community level, in particular in contrast to the experience of non‐Indigenous people in the Northern Territory, and the Indigenous population nationally both of which were only lightly touched by these programs.

Analysis of key social outcomes indicates:

 Over the period of income management the rate of infant mortality amongst Indigenous people in the Northern Territory has increased, this contrasts with falls for Indigenous people nationally and for non‐Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. This group has also seen a rise in low birth weight births, and an increase in child deaths from injury. Child abuse and neglect substantiations have also increased, although it is noted this may be influenced by a willingness to report. Indigenous children in the Northern Territory have not seen the same declines in developmental vulnerability as have Indigenous children elsewhere.

 The period since the introduction of income management has seen falling rates of school attendance by Indigenous children in the Northern Territory, and while some NAPLAN results have improved for these children, others have not. Again where there have been gains these are smaller than those for Indigenous children nationally.

 There is strong evidence of a decline in alcohol consumption in the Northern Territory. This is a trend that pre‐dates the introduction of income management with research identifying a range of policies, including pricing and supply limitations which appear to be driving it. Notwithstanding this Indigenous people do not report a lower rate of risky drinking in 2014‐15 than they did in 2002, and alcohol related emergency department presentations have increased.

 Rates of assaults appear to be largely flat, although there is a decline in assaults associated with alcohol. No consistent pattern of declining crime is identifiable in data from 2007 onwards, although there is evidence of particular alcohol restriction enforcement activities directly impacting on crime. The rate of imprisonment of Indigenous people in the Northern Territory has continued to rise strongly across the period of income management. These findings not only reflect upon a failure of income management policies to achieve their goals, but also have implications for a wider range of interventions under the Northern Territory Emergency Response and Stronger Futures….. [my yellow highlighting]

The completer 59 page submission can be read and/or downloaded at:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I9w2Tdurcb1XaiAlyrqA53yZPlKiVrkf/view

OR

sub01_ANUCSRM.

# The Cashless Debit Card scheme covering people who receive working age welfare payments is currently applied to residents in six areas.

These are:

Ceduna, South Australia

Kununurra and Wyndham in the East Kimberly region, Western Australia

Goldfields region, Western Australia

Bundaberg, Hervey Bay region, Queensland

Cape York, Queensland, and

the Northern Territory.

According to the Dept. of Social Services on 31 January 2022:

In the Ceduna region, the Goldfields region and the East Kimberley region the program applies to all people who receive a working age welfare payment. People receiving the Age Pension may volunteer to participate.

In the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay region, the program applies to people aged 35 and under who receive JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance (Job seeker), Parenting Payment (Partnered) and Parenting Payment (Single). People over 35 years of age or receiving the Age Pension may volunteer to participate.

In the Cape York region in Queensland, the program applies to those who the Family Responsibilities Commission have referred. People on Age Pension may choose to volunteer to participate.

In the Northern Territory, the program applies to Income Management participants who have chosen to transition to Cashless Debit Card as well as eligible income support recipients who have volunteered for the program. If you live in the Northern Territory, you can now transition to the Cashless Debit Card on the same day.

According to Services Australia on 22 January 2022:

• You will have access to 20 per cent (50 per cent for most participants in the Northern Territory and Cape York) of your welfare payment that you can withdraw as cash to use in circumstances where only cash is accepted, for example at school canteens, fetes and farmers markets.

• If you were placed on the Cashless Debit Card in one of the first four sites, you can also transfer up to $200 per 28 days to your regular bank account.

• The Cashless Debit Card works at businesses that accept eftpos or Visa. The only time the card cannot be used is for the purchase of alcohol, gambling products, cash-like gift cards or to withdraw cash. Or for any other goods or services determined by the Commonwealth of Australia to be banned goods/services in accordance with the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999 (Cth).

• Indue Limited and the Traditional Credit Union are the designated debit card suppliers/restricted bank account managers.

• The list of blocked merchants/sites at which the Cashless Debit Card cannot be used currently contains 889 businesses.

• There appears to be no formal mechanism in place to appeal to Dept. of Social Security, Centrelink or Services Australia concerning any decisions or action taken by Indue Limited with regard to any  particular restricted bank account.

Australia 2022: a study in betrayal

SARS-CoV-2 entered Australia on 15 January 2020. It came here by a commercial passenger jet. It was not until 25 January 2020 that the infected passenger was diagnosed with COVID-19 and became our own Patient Zero in Sydney, New South Wales.

That same day two more airline passengers who disembarked in Sydney were also diagnosed with COVID-19.

From the very beginning the public health response of both the Federal and NSW governments was never as swift and comprehensive as it needed to be.

Indeed, over the next 15 months it often seemed that Prime Minister & fundamentalist Liberal Party ideologue Scott Morrison was personally determined to sabotage any chance of coming through this pandemic with minimal viral infections, deaths and long-term health problems for those who recovered from COVID-19.

However, despite the increasing politicization and weaponing of the public health response by the Morrison Government, we almost made it through.

By 15 June 2021 Australia had limited infection spread so that the cumulative total of COVID-19 cases was 30,274 people – just 0.1176% of the entire population. Sadly the COVID-10 related death toll stood at 910 individuals, but on the other hand there were only 116 active cases remaining in the entire country and only 26 of these were still sick enough to require hospitalization. Such outcomes compared favourably with global pandemic data.

On 16 June NSW Health confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant had been discovered after testing a man from Eastern Sydney. It was then that first the population of New South Wales and later by the rest of Australia discovered that, when it came to elected members of the federal and NSW state governments, there had been no lessons learnt from the earlier litany of public health blunders.

The Delta Variant quickly became a state-wide outbreak that was exported to other states and territories once then NSW Premier & Liberal MP for Willoughby Gladys Berejiklian – seemingly in thrall to Scott Morrison – began to insist that communities across the state must learn to ‘live with COVID’ and that the other states needed to follow her plan to re-open borders and scale back public health order conditions & restrictions. Scott Morrison threw his weight behind the only state premier who agreed with him and COVID-19 infections began to grow and spread at an alarming rate.

Over the next 23 weeks the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia grew to a cumulative total of 205,271 people with a COVID-19 related death toll of 1,985 individuals. The number of active cases remaining at the end of that time numbered 13,492 infected people with 557 ill enough to require hospitalisation.

There was a faint light at the end of the tunnel because infection growth and spread had begun to fall in the state that started the Delta Outbreak. So that at 8pm on Friday, 26 November 2021 the daily number of confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in NSW only totalled 235 people with 174 COVID-19 cases currently hospitalized and, 26 people in intensive care 10 of whom require ventilation.

Two days later NSW Health heralded the arrival of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant after passengers who disembarked in Sydney from southern Africa on 28 November 2021 had tested positive for COVID-19 and their test results were being sequenced for this new variant.

The most charitable explanation for what happened next was that the entire NSW Government mindlessly panicked and, with new Premier & fundamentalist Liberal Party ideologue Dominic Perrottet at the helm, decided to treat this new outbreak in the making as a purely political and economic issue. Scott Morrison encouraged this approach just as he had encouraged open borders, lowering public health order restrictions and living with COVID.

This time Morrison appears to have gone further behind closed doors at the so-called National Cabinet meetings – rumours of verbal abuse, political threats and threats of financial sanctions by the federal government began to filter out.

By 15 December 2021 there was little left of what had always been an inchoate national public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, the states had begun to follow New South Wales down the rabbit hole Scott Morrison had so industriously dug.

On 31 December 2021 the national cumulative total of confirmed COVID-19 cases had grown to 395,504 people or 1.536% of the entire population. And tellingly, est. 190,233 more people had fallen ill over the space of the last 5 weeks. The cumulative national COVID-19 related death toll stood at 2,239 individuals. Active cases numbered 137,752 and current hospitalizations 1,591.

By 1 January 2022 that 190,233 figure appeared to have grown to 225,560 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia in the space of the last 5 weeks. 

When 2 January arrived  there was more unwelcome news. As at 8pm the number of additional confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last 5 weeks had grown to est. 257,194 people nationally. 

The national daily number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases on 2 January was given as 32,354 people and the number of active cases as est, 188,957 individuals. Currently 1,978 infected people were ill enough to require hospitalisation (1,204 of those being inpatients in NSW hospitals), 148 being in ICUs (95 in NSW) and 51 being ventilated (25 in NSW).

While the cumulative national total confirmed cases according to the Australian Dept. of Health was 462,928 and total deaths since January 2020 were recorded as 2,258 men, women and children.

Unfortunately, after 23 months of community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 , an erratic national public health response and a political response in recent months which has the effect of limiting community access to PCR tests & rapid antigen self- testing kits, the recorded tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases no longer represents a true and accurate total of the number of people who actually contracted the virus. The degree of undetected infection and the under reporting in official data to date has not been publicly quantified in Australia, but there is some suggestion that it could currently be somewhere between 20-25% and up to 50% for the latter part of December 2021. These percentages have the potential to impact on government's ability to assess probability and risk going forward into 2022.

Regions, local government areas and communities across Australia are in uncharted waters. It might never be possible to walk back the current high infection rate in the foreseeable future and, February 2022 may bring a new normal that is debilitating to national, state and regional economies, the public health system and social cohesion. 

Now one can argue about the level of virulence attached to the Omicron Variant and about whether cumulative, active, hospitalised or death toll numbers are important markers. However, what cannot be denied is that everyone of these active cases on any given day represents over time; a potential or real loss of productivity at state and national level, changes in the pattern of business profitability, yo-yoing consumer confidence, a decrease in tourism & hospitality turnover and an assault on the collective sense of safety and wellbeing. As well as a very real possibility that how Australian citizen’s cast their ballot at elections held in 2022 may be very different from past years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the first two days of 2022 Northern NSW Local Health District where this blog is situated had recorded a total of 715 new confirmed COVID-19 cases across the 7 local government areas and, reported up to 19 people in hospital with 4 in intensive care.

• Byron Shire – 260 cases

• Tweed Shire – 173 cases

• Ballina Shire – 108 cases

• Clarence Valley – 76 cases

• Lismore City – 74 cases

• Richmond Valley – 14 cases

• Kyogle Shire – 10 cases

TOTAL  715 

Sources

• https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/06/coronavirus-covid-19-at-a-glance-15-june-2021.pdf

• https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/11/coronavirus-covid-19-at-a-glance-27-november-2021.pdf

• https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2022/01/coronavirus-covid-19-at-a-glance-31-december-2021.pdf

• https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2021-nsw-health.aspx

• https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2022-nsw-health.aspx

• https://nnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/blog/category/media-releases/

December 2021: What the newspapers are saying....

 

The Daily Telegraph, 15 December 2021, p10:

The CEO of an organisation that managed an East Lismore group home where significant issues arose has apologised on behalf of the service provider.

Life Without Barriers CEO Claire Robbs addressed the Disability Royal Commission on Tuesday.

Ms Robbs addressed issues including those which arose in relation to a particular resident of the group home, referred to by the pseudonym Sophie and another, known as Natalie.

“It deeply saddens me that for the people who have shared their stories with the disability Royal Commission, our organisation has not met this promise,” Ms Robbs said.

“The physical abuse Sophie experienced is unquestionably not in keeping with Sophie’s right to feel safe and respected in her own home.” “I do not condone the violence towards Sophie, and I offer Sophie and her family our sincere apology for the harm caused to her, including for the manner in which our investigations into the matter was undertaken.” She has condemned the misconduct toward another resident, known as Natalie. “For Natalie and her family, the sexual misconduct by a staff member is completely unacceptable, and I acknowledge the pain and trauma that has caused Natalie and her family,” Ms Robbs said.

“Our priority should have been to protect Natalie earlier.

“I offer this apology to both Natalie and her family with a full understanding that our delay in offering a genuine and human response was also unacceptable.” Ms Robbs is continuing to give evidence before the commission in relation to multiple abuse, mistreatment and neglect allegations at homes run by Life Without Barriers.

The organisation’s Director of Policy Reform and Business Development Stephen Doley appeared before the commission on Monday.

Mr Doley was the director of disability and aged care for NSW and the ACT at the time of the incidents in Lismore but was also questioned about the cases of residents in a Melbourne home…..

The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 December 2021, p1:

More than 1.9 million coronavirus case alerts have been issued in the Service NSW app over the past fortnight as end-of-year celebrations drive an upswing in the state's cases.

The alerts, issued between November 29 and December 13, include directions to monitor for symptoms, as well as to test and isolate as contacts of a case.

There have been several instances of all patrons at a hospitality venue being placed in isolation for a week as clusters linked to nightclubs and pubs threaten to push daily cases into the thousands by the end of the year…..

A NSW Health spokesperson said they were unable to confirm how many people were considered close contacts.

Half of Sydney's systemic Catholic schools elected to learn from home this week as families attempt to avoid being deemed a close contact before Christmas.

But hundreds of other families are awaiting their fate after their children were potentially exposed at school…..

Christine Rooke's daughter, who is too young to be vaccinated, caught COVID-19 on the last day of term at her eastern suburbs private school this month.

She tested positive on day six of her quarantine period so will spend the first 20 days of her holidays in isolation.

Ms Rooke says she hopes the rest of her family, all of whom are vaccinated, will avoid catching the virus. If they test positive, the clock on their isolation will be reset and they will be housebound until after Christmas.

"If none of us test positive, we could be out on the 19th. If any of us test positive now, we will miss it," she said.

"It's frustrating because we've been sold this story ... that we are going to live with COVID and life is going to get back to normal, but that isn't really the case."…..

Courier Mail, 13 December 2021, p5:

This week, police will embark on their biggest operation since the Commonwealth Games and the G20 summit – the reopening of Queensland.

Late on Sunday afternoon, stranded Queenslanders and travellers began to fill Tweed Heads, filling side streets, car parks and service stations, poised for the border to open at 1am.

Julie Aubrey and her family parked their caravan at a service station just 9km from the border, setting up camp chairs for the long wait.

Ms Aubrey travelled from Brisbane to Victoria in June to care for her sick mother-in-law. She passed in October, but Mr Aubrey couldn’t return because of hard border closures. “I haven’t seen my kids for six months, so that’s been tough. I just can’t wait to see them,” she said.

The borders have been closed to southern hotspots for the past 141 days, leaving families ripped apart, Queenslanders stranded and the tourism industry reeling.

The border has now been closed three times for a total of 435 days since the pandemic began.

But the long wait and the uncertainty is over.

FIFO dads will see their kids again – some meeting babies for the first time – grandparents will reunite with families, couples will celebrate homecomings and some locals will simply be allowed to go home.

Health authorities, including Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and new chief health officer Dr John Gerrard, have reassured Queenslanders there are no plans to shut the state down again.

Greeting the interstate arrivals at road checkpoints and airports will be officers from a 500-strong contingency, tasked with ensuring border openings today and vaccine mandates on Friday go smoothly.

The state’s top Covid cop, Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski, said it was the biggest police operation since the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane attended by world leaders, including then-US president Barack Obama.

“We could see up to 60,000 vehicles (crossing into Queensland) per day,” he said.

“The pandemic response has been by far the largest and most sustained major operation in QPS history but the anticipated numbers (of ­people) we will have to deal with when the border reopens will be significant.” Business and tourism leaders, along with long-suffering border residents, say the reopening has been a long time coming and there can be no more crippling closures.

“There’s enormous relief that the state government has held its nerve and stuck with the road map despite the emergence of the Omicron variant,” Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind said.

“It should help rebuild shattered consumer confidence about travelling anywhere across borders.

“We have to learn to live with the virus and accept that it will spread in Queensland, but we can manage it.” Mr Gschwind said holiday bookings and inquiries had surged since the border reopening announcement.

He said the decision to reopen four days earlier than scheduled, after Queensland’s double dose vaccination hit 80 per cent last week, had reinforced confidence…..

Manning River Times, 10 December 2021, p3:

Health systems coping "at the moment" Local health systems, not just in the Mid Coast, but in other regional and rural areas around NSW, seem to be coping well at the moment, thanks to high vaccination rates in most areas. But it still wouldn't take much to tip the situation to a serious level, health workers say.

"The problem is things might seem to be going alright but then they can go pear shaped very, very fast," Dr Holliday said.

"I guess with small hospitals, and the Manning (Base Hospital) is really under funded, what will happen is that people will do their very best, but we don't have the capacity."

Paramedics and nursing staff in rural and regional areas keep saying there is a chronic staff shortage, and that the capacity of a hospital to deal with an increase in COVID cases will not come down to a lack of beds, but a lack of staff.

Tim McEwan, an Australian Paramedics Association delegate and working paramedic from Yamba, near Coffs Harbour, says that staff are "dead on their feet"

"It's been relentless. Not necessarily COVID related, just generally speaking," Mr McEwen said,

"What we're finding now is that both NSW Ambulance and the hospitals are struggling to staff their units.

"Even NSW ambulance can be two or three cars short each shift, and they just can't find paramedics to fill them. The casuals don't seem to be putting their hand up as much; certainly the full time staff are not putting their hands up for overtime.

"If the hospitals can't staff their wards, then the flow on is that the ED can't get their patients out of there onto the wards," Tim says…..

Morrison Government did not finish the 2021 Australian Parliamentary year in a blaze of glory

 

The Australian Parliament House Of Representatives and Senate now stand adjourned until 12 noon on 8 February 2022.

This is how the parliamentary year ended for the Morrison Government – women both inside and outside the parliament were openly critical of the Prime Minister and the government he leads.

Political commentator and author Niki Savva writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 December 2021:

The last time Bridget Archer alerted the Prime Minister’s office in advance that she was considering voting against the government, she says she had two senior members of his staff literally standing over her in her office.

Archer told colleagues at the time, and has since confirmed it to this columnist, that for almost two weeks she felt bullied, threatened and intimidated by the staffers – one male, one female, both of whom have been around politics a long time who should know better – seeking to persuade her to vote with the government.

Archer spoke against the cashless welfare card legislation, then abstained from voting. Her decision triggered a campaign of online abuse …..

Lately, constituents in her notoriously fickle Tasmanian seat of Bass, which she holds with a margin of 0.4 per cent, have been stopping her on the street, saying: “we like you Bridget, but...” The “but” drips with portent for Scott Morrison and the government.

So last Thursday Archer crossed the floor to second a motion by independent Helen Haines for a national commission against corruption. Archer regards the right to stand up for a principle, even if it means going against the government and the Prime Minister, as the defining feature of the party. It’s what makes people like her become a Liberal.

To avoid a repeat of her experience last year, the only people she told in advance of her intention were her staff and Haines. She did not even tell the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, two nights before when she and other MPs ate takeaway pizza and pasta in his office.

When she burst into tears in Morrison’s office, after Frydenberg had escorted her there like an errant schoolgirl, it was an emotional release, not a sign of weakness.

Archer had no problem with Morrison expressing his displeasure. He said his piece. After composing herself, she said hers. She owned her actions. She did not apologise for supporting Haines, she did not take a single backward step. She told Morrison she was neither a “drone” nor a “warm body” – words he later appropriated to describe rebellious backbenchers and convey to the media his tolerance of them.

Archer told Morrison about his staff, pointedly asking that “they stay away from me”. She also made clear she would cross the floor again if necessary. Archer’s experience underlines the importance of Kate Jenkins’ finding that cultural change to tackle bullying and sexual harassment in Parliament House has to come from the top.

Archer reckons the government has got its priorities all wrong. Although she empathises with Gladys Berejiklian, she believes the ICAC was doing its job, arguing such a body – rather than a religious freedom bill – is essential to help restore people’s faith in politicians.

One is a problem which exists that needs to be fixed, the other looks like a fix for a problem which doesn’t exist, as the deeply religious NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet implied on Sky by asking “why now?”

Archer fears the religious discrimination bill could be a “slippery slope”. She says she will vote against it if it impinges on the rights of others, particularly the LGBTIQ community.

At least she will have company with Trent Zimmerman, Dave Sharma and Warren Entsch expressing similar views, which explains why Morrison is in no rush to put it to a vote.

The Prime Minister pretended to be as relaxed about Archer’s actions this time as he was last time, saying what close friends and colleagues they were and what a grand old party he led which allowed members to express themselves freely.

He does that often. Boasts about being good friends with people when really it’s just heavy duty Spakfilla patter, sealing up the cracks or covering his own poor behaviour.

He has done it with Berejiklian too, even though she confided several times to friends he tried to bully her, and while Premier she got her office to tell Morrison’s office to stop undermining and backgrounding against her……

ABC, “7.30” program, 2 December 2021:

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Laura Tingle is with us from Canberra. Laura, as much as governments like to clear the decks at the end of the year, especially going into an election year, there is always unfinished business. What are the leftovers this year that are likely to be significant going into 2022?

LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the leftovers are things that probably never now see the light of day before the election, Leigh.

The big ones are the election promises for an anti-corruption commission - not going to see the light of day at the rate we are going. The government hasn't even tabled its proposed legislation on that and has baulked at letting a debate go on about Helen Haines' alternative model.

The other one is the religious discrimination bill, another election promise. It got about an hour's worth of debate this afternoon in the House of Representatives but will be really struggling now to get debated, if Parliament does indeed come back, and it's losing friends as we go. The Christian lobby today signalled that it was not all that keen on the way the debate was going.

And finally, there was this very last-minute proposal about voter ID legislation which offended a lot of people and outraged them. That's now been dumped very unceremoniously, and Labor insists there wasn't a deal on this, but one of the things that has come up as a bit of a surprise is a move that really puts incredible pressure on charities to declare themselves as political campaigners and that is going to have a huge impact, particularly, I think, in the area of environmental charities.

LEIGH SALES: As we know, trust has been an issue for the Prime Minister in recent times, how did that play into a matter that made headlines today regarding the awarding of a quarantine contract?

LAURA TINGLE: This is a story that's sort of come up a few times since September, Leigh, including when the ABC's Andrew Greene reported it. These are contracts to set up a private quarantine hotel arrangement and it was let by a limited tender to two of Scott Morrison's closest friends, including a former Liberal Party director or deputy director called Scott Briggs.

Now, the Prime Minister was really outraged at the suggestion that he had somehow intervened in this policy or was somehow involved in the letting of the contracts, but once again, because this issue of trust has become such a terrible one and I think separate questions, there's been this focus right through the whole year about transparency and accountability in the awarding of grants, that this is the last thing the Prime Minister needs, particularly on an issue like quarantine where things haven't really gone all that well for the Government this year anyway.

LEIGH SALES: Just to switch the focus to Labor, stakes are also high for Anthony Albanese going into an election year. What do you think are the issues Labor is going to need to get in order over the summer break?

LAURA TINGLE: I think they'll have to look at making sure that they have a sound story on the economy. I think the Government's now vulnerable on that.

They have obviously got their climate policy coming out over this next few days and those are the two really big things that they are going to have to sort out, other than that they have got to look, a bit like Kevin Rudd in 2007, they are sort of like the government, only trustworthy.

LEIGH SALES: Laura Tingle, thanks very much.

LAURA TINGLE: Thanks, Leigh.

Last week 2 MPs crossed the floor to vote against the government - George Christensen & Bridget Archer. Only one of these Members was hauled into the Prime Minister’s office & reduced to tears.

Australian women know why Ms Archer received this special treatment. #auspol pic.twitter.com/L4B14h3rzH

— Senator Jenny McAllister (@jennymcallister) November 29, 2021

 

ABC, “7.30” program, 2 December 2021:

RACHELLE MILLER, FORMER COALITION STAFFER: Today I want to stand in my former workplace and to say again that what happened to me was not okay.

LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Today former political staffer Rachelle Miller said she wanted to tell her story. It involved someone much more powerful and famous - Alan Tudge - currently the Federal Minister for Education and Youth.

Miller first disclosed a relationship with Tudge, her former boss, on Four Corners ‘Inside the Canberra Bubble’ report late last year.

(Excerpt from Four Corners - Inside the Canberra Bubble)

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Rachelle Miller says her affair with Alan Tudge, now acting immigration minister, was completely consensual.

(End of excerpt)

LAURA TINGLE: But today she had a lot more to say and the world has changed considerably since she first spoke out. This week Australians were shocked by the anonymous stories of sexual assault, harassment and bullying in Parliament House.

Today Rachelle Miller put a face to those stories and those stories were not just about assault but about culture and power imbalances.

RACHELLE MILLER: I am fully aware that a year ago I said that my relationship with Minister Alan Tudge was a consensual relationship, but it's much more complicated than that.

When I spoke out, not a single person from this Government contacted me to see if I was okay. One female chief of staff sent me a text and that was it.

LAURA TINGLE: Miller said this was a story about Parliament House and she spoke at exactly the same spot where Scott Morrison commented about the case of another political staffer - Brittany Higgins.

SCOTT MORRISON, PRIME MINISTER (February): Jenny and I spoke last night, and she said to me you have to think about this as a father first. What would you want to happen if it were our girls? Jenny has a way of clarifying things.

LAURA TINGLE: Miller’s intervention today, challenging the voters of Aston to consider the behaviour she alleges of Tudge - a man she claims physically kicked her out of bed because her phone had disturbed his sleep - is a suitable coda to a political year dominated by the issue of the treatment of women in politics.

Mr Tudge quote “completely and utterly” rejected Miller’s version of events today and said he deeply regretted the consensual affair.

But despite the denials, Miller’s statement still posed big problems for the Prime Minister.

After all, earlier this week, he had described the Jenkins reports’ findings of what goes on in Parliament House as ‘appalling’ and ‘disturbing’.

SCOTT MORRISON: But given the seriousness of these claims that have been made by Ms Miller, it is important that these matters be resolved fairly and expeditiously.

To this end, the Minister has agreed to my request to stand aside while these issues are addressed by my department, but I wish to stress that this action, in no way seeks to draw a conclusion on these matters, Mr Speaker, but this is the appropriate action for me to take under the ministerial standards.

LAURA TINGLE: In a statement, Mr Tudge said he intended to submit written evidence to the inquiry that would contradict Ms Miller’s position.

The PM seemed to be very aware today that he needed to be seen to take these allegations very seriously. He announced that Vivienne Thom would be conducting the inquiry - the woman who ran the High Court inquiry into former Justice Dyson Heydon.

Standing Minister Tudge aside only added to the sense the Government is disintegrating around him with a growing list of departures ahead of next year’s election.

Late yesterday, former attorney-general Christian Porter announced, via Facebook, that he would not contest the next election.

FACEBOOK POST FROM CHRISTIAN PORTER: Even though I have experienced perhaps more of the harshness of modern politics than most, there are no regrets.

It’s now time to give more of what is left to those around me whose love has been unconditional.

LAURA TINGLE: Porter’s departure has been reported very much in terms of the allegations and controversy he has faced this year.

But the policy issues over which he presided are perhaps more important signposts to the history of this government, and the policy controversies - and approach to accountability - in which it has often been embroiled.

As minister for social services, he played a key role in establishing the controversial Robodebt scheme, which saw hundreds of thousands of people facing devastating claims of overclaiming welfare benefits.

Porter was occupying the office of attorney-general when the Government was later forced to concede that the scheme had ‘no legal basis’ and was ‘unlawful’. The government eventually repaid $720 million of the falsely raised debts

Also as attorney-general, Porter would not rule out prosecuting journalists, and sending them to jail, for publishing public interest stories.

He also made the decision to proceed with the prosecution of the man known as Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery. Witness K was the whistle-blower who revealed Australia had bugged a room in the offices of Timor Leste’s Prime Minister at the time the two countries were negotiating resource rights in the Timor Gap.

Last year, Porter used his national security powers to have the court hearing of this case held in the strictest secrecy.

KERRYN PHELPS: There is an urgent medical crisis in Australia's offshore detention centres.

LAURA TINGLE: In 2019, the government lost an historic vote when Labor and the crossbench forced through what was known as the so-called medevac laws - designed to more easily allow seriously ill asylum seekers to be evacuated from Australia’s offshore detention centres.

During that process, Christian Porter resisted attempts to have advice on the legislation from the Solicitor General tabled in the Parliament.

TONY SMITH, SPEAKER (2019): I'll advise the Attorney-General that, as Speaker, it's important I ensure, in this instance, all material available to me is also available to all members of the House.

LAURA TINGLE: After the 2019 election, Porter oversaw the repealing of those laws.

The former attorney-general also released the original proposal for religious freedom legislation - subsequently dumped.

And his proposed model for a national anti-corruption commission has been derided as a toothless tiger.

Late this afternoon, Health Minister Greg Hunt told Parliament he will be leaving Parliament at the election.

GREG HUNT, HEALTH MINISTER: On Sunday, they looked at me, and said, "Dad, this is your last chance to be a proper dad and it's time to come home, Dad.”

LAURA TINGLE: That’s a senior cabinet minister leaving, a former senior cabinet minister - once seen as a future PM - leaving, and another senior cabinet minister with his future under a cloud.

There are also seven other MPs leaving at a time when the Government has gone from eyeing seats it can win from Labor to having to defend seats across the country

In the PM’s home state of New South Wales, bitter divisions within the Liberal Party have seen pre-selections delayed for both House of Representatives and Senate seats.

Incumbency is supposed to give governments a political advantage. As this ugly political year ends and we approach a federal election campaign, that advantage is far from clear.

Kate Jenkins' Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces has been released. It is damning.
- 1 in 3 people in parliament experienced seuxal harrassment
- 1 per cent suffered attempted or actual sexual assault
- 77 per cent witnessed or experienced bullying

— Clare Armstrong (@ByClare) November 30, 2021

Liberal and Nationals MPs who have stated they are not standing in the 2022 federal election

Kevin Andrews (disendorsed by party) – Menzies Vic – Margin 7.0 LIB

George Christensen – Dawson Qld – Margin 14.6 NATS

Andrew Laming – Bowman Qld – Margin 10.2 LIB

Greg Hunt – Flinders Vic – Margin 5.6 LIB

Christian Porter – Pearce WA – Margin 5.2 LIB

Tony Smith – Casey Vic – Margin 4.6 LIB

Nicolle Flint – Boothby SA – Margin 1.4 LIB

John Alexander – Bennelong NSW – Margin 6.9 LIB

Steve Irons – Swan WA – Margin 3.2 LIB

Ken O'Dowd – Flynn Qld – Margin 8.7 NATS

Damian Drum – Nicholls Vic – Margin 20.0 NATS

Then there was this in the House of Representatives during Question Time on 2 December 2021…..

Mr BRENDAN O'CONNOR (Gorton) (14:02): My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday, Sky News reported two of the Prime Minister's best mates received $80,000 of taxpayer money, without a tender, to set up their own private sector quarantine business known as Quarantine Services Australia. Sky News also reported that Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo told business leaders that this was a really important project for the Prime Minister. Is Mr Pezzullo right?

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House, on a point of order?

Mr Dutton: There is an imputation that's implied quite clearly in the question that's been asked, and that is against the standing orders. That's the first point, Mr Speaker. If there are allegations to make, then those allegations should be put in another forum, not here in this House.

The SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business?

Mr Burke: Ministers are expected to be across media reports; that's in Practice. The question specifically goes to a media report and describes the source. It then refers to that particular payment being a priority for the Prime Minister as being attributed to the secretary of a department. It simply asks whether that is accurate. It goes no further than asking whether it was a really important project for the Prime Minister. So the extra layers that the Leader of the House is referring to are not in the question that was just asked.