Get down with AAT (yeah, you know me) We’ve been following the stackathon on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a very long time, and yesterday gave us a new batch. The appointment of former Howard adviser, former family and community services minister in the Berejiklian government and NSW Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly for more than a decade Pru Goward was particularly brazen and hit the the sweet spot of “transparently partisan” and “has a long record of bonkers statements” thanks to her columns in The Australian Financial Review.
Apart from her description of Grace Tame as “an angry young woman”, there was her notorious piece concerned with “harnessing” the poor, citing non-specific “social workers” who “despair” at the working class’s “appalling housework, neglect of their children and, notably, their sharp and unrepentant manner when told to lift their game”.
One fellow member who might not have understood the fuss is Bridget Cullen, a member since 2017 who had her appointment extended in this latest round. In early 2021, Cullen quit her position on a governing body that runs four elite Christian schools after “wildly inappropriate” Facebook posts were reported in The Courier-Mail. Cullen had created a “tongue-in-cheek” page for her stolen BMW which followed the adventures of a fictional meth-addict/dealer being raised by a sex worker in government housing who (Jesus Christ … ) gave him “freebies” by letting him watch her “working” when he and his brother “Tyson” were small.
The spirit of things In case you missed it, Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate has hired a ratepayer-funded “spiritual adviser”, an adherent of the Christian fundamentalist Seven Mountain Mandate, which seeks to achieve Christian control of the major institutions of society.
Si Gladman of the Rationalist Society sent us a 2019 video in which Pastor Sue Baynes describes taking Tate on as an adherent in 2012:
And I said to him, ‘You know what, Tom?’ I said, ‘If that is true — if that is your heart as a Christian to come into this position as mayor — I want to talk to you about something.’ And for the next hour I outlined for him, on a piece of A4 paper, the Seven Mountain Mandate … And I said, ‘This can be a template for how we can see our city transformed by the power of God to look like the Kingdom of God.’ His chin dropped — it hit the desk — and he said, ‘I want this. I want you to help me to do this.’
We’re Kelly’s heroes We have said many things about Craig Kelly over the years, but one thing we can never accuse him of from this point on is being ungracious. In the past two days, he has shared two Crikey pieces to his Twitter following, including David Hardaker’s excellent work on Stuart Robert.
We appreciate the support, Craig — we’d love to text you to say thanks, but the number we have doesn’t seem to work any more.
Department of dysfunction Yet more scandal at the Department of Home Affairs, with The Australian reporting that DPG Advisory Solutions — a private quarantine company run by former Liberal Party candidate/ministerial adviser David Gazard, and former deputy director of the Liberal Party Scott Briggs, both close friends of Scott Morrison — were engaged on an “urgent advisory” basis regarding the repatriation of 30,000 Australians stranded overseas.
It raises serious questions of probity and, as the Oz says, why the Department of Home Affairs had taken organising the initiative at all after all that hoo-ha from the prime minister about how quarantine facilities were an issue for the states. We’ll chuck this on the pile with the series of damning Australian National Audit Office reports concerning such matters as paying 1000% more than it should have for the land owned by a Coalition donor.
