“Make no mistake, a returned Morrison Government will take victory as an endorsement of every corrupt and corrupting thing they have done, and they will double down.”
[Writer,
academic, author Tim
Dunlop,
“Death
of a Salesman?”
, 19
May 2022]
The
Australia Institute, media
release, 16 May 2022:
A
new report from the Australia Institute’s Democracy &
Accountability Program represents the largest and most comprehensive
domestic study of the practice of cronyism in relation to
appointments to a government agency ever conducted in Australia.
This
detailed deep dive report has investigated every single appointment
made to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) since 1996 –
almost 1,000 appointments in total, and reveals that the proportion
of political appointments to the AAT has skyrocketed from ~5-6% under
the Howard, Rudd and Gillard Governments, to almost one in three
appointments (32%) across the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Governments,
and two in every five appointments (40%) under the current government
alone.
Key
Findings:
“Across
almost 1,000 appointments to the AAT since 1996, a worrying pattern
emerges: appointments have become increasingly political under the
current government,” said Ben Oquist, executive director of the
Australia Institute.
“When
John Howard was Prime Minister, only 6% of appointments to the AAT
were political, but in the most recent term of the current Government
40% of appointments were political.
“These
political appointments are much more likely to have no legal
qualifications than non-political appointments, even though AAT
decisions must consider facts, laws, and policy.
“The
AAT is responsible for reviewing life-changing decisions by the
federal government including deportations, migration visas, NDIS
payments, welfare payments, workers’ compensation, and veterans’
entitlements.
“Members
of the public should be able to trust that their case will be heard
by a tribunal member who is qualified and not appointed for political
reasons.
“A
complete overhaul is needed to ensure that the AAT selection process
is open and transparent, and not subject to political manipulation.
This is now not only important for the AAT but is essential to fix
integrity, accountability in government and protect democracy
itself.”
Lead
author of the report, Deb Wilkinson is an expert in the study of
cronyism and is completing her doctorate at the Australian National
University.
RELATED
RESEARCH
Cronyism
in appointments to the AAT
FULL
REPORT
Besides political appointments, there are other ways of perverting the function of government agencies and influencing decisions/outcomes.
This was Morrison & Co's response to the Australian National Audit Office fulfilling its legislated brief.
ABC
News,
19 February 2021:
The
Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) runs the rule over the
operations of government department and agencies, checking whether
taxpayer funds are being used appropriately.
The
profile of the agency has risen considerably in the last year after
it uncovered the so-called "sports rorts" saga in early
2020 — revealing the Coalition disproportionately awarded
community grants to sports clubs in marginal Liberal and National
seats ahead of the 2019 election.
The
ANAO also uncovered flaws with the purchase of a plot of land at the
site of the new Western Sydney airport, called the "Leppington
Triangle".
The
Commonwealth
paid close to $30 million for a 12-hectare parcel worth just $3
million, with Auditor-General Grant Hehir ultimately referring
the land deal to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.….
The
October 2020 budget showed a cut of $14 million to the ANAO's yearly
funding, something the Auditor-General described as "uncomfortable".
Appearing
before a parliamentary committee on Friday, Mr Hehir said his team
would have to cut the number of major performance audits it undertook
each year to deal with those constraints.
"Historically,
for the last two decades, the ANAO has provided the Parliament with
an average of 47 performance audit reports per year," he said in
his opening statement…...
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