The question that always arises in the aftermath of something like the robodebt royal commission report, laying bare as it did government cruelty and mismanagement with widespread and tragic consequences, is: will anyone face the consequences for what they’ve done?
The report singled out, for example, former prime minister (and former social services minister) Scott Morrison, saying as minister he “allowed cabinet to be misled” over the legality of the scheme, and as a witness he misled the commission.
Morrison has — from his holiday spot in Europe — rejected the commissions findings as “wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear documentary evidence presented to the commission”.
Liberal MP Bridget Archer has now called for him to get on with that long-hinted-at resignation from Parliament, but there is a feeling within the party that Morrison wouldn’t resign now and give the impression of being forced out by scandal, presumably happier to subject his colleagues to the pasting that Labor are promising over his ongoing presence come the next parliamentary sitting week.
So it’s cheering to see something might be done to bring home to Morrison the gravity of his actions: the Cronulla Sharks are considering revoking Morrison’s No. 1 ticket holder status.
Morrison was given the honorary title when he was federal treasurer in 2016. The thought of losing it must be devastating, especially coming so soon after he was forced to describe his privately expressed desire to be installed on the Australian Rugby League Commission as “just a bit of pub talk”. After all, he’s been a passionate Sharks fan ever since he was a young… politician trying to get elected in the area that contained their home ground.
But at least Tina Arena isn’t abandoning him. Morrison doesn’t get a specific mention in The Weekend Australian‘s, shall we say, fulsome profile of his favourite singer — “Inside the chest of the woman born Filippina Lydia Arena beats the heart of an unapologetic artist” — but he can’t have been unhappy with the way it delved into the politics of the COVID-19 era.
Arena is “still incandescent about the world’s lengthiest lockdown”, we are told, as Arena recounts her time as the one and only brave person who didn’t enjoy Victoria’s long and battering COVID restrictions*:
I didn’t hear anybody complaining during lockdown other than me: ‘Why are we locked up? Where’s your science? What? Why?’ The fear was so much for me; it was choking me, I was like, I can’t cope with all of you being so fear-driven like this, and compliant. And why can’t you drive more than five kilometres? Guess what — watch me. So I did. I drove past my five kilometres. Am I a criminal now? You want to pull me up? Pull me up. You want to fine me? Fine me. I’m not the one with the issue here. The issue is there is no logic. You have no right to do that. You are fining me. This is totalitarian. We don’t work like that.
Morrison, whose government spent that period largely taking shots at Victoria and its government in an attempt to score political points, must have taken comfort from Arena’s stance. Her view was certainly much closer to his than the rest of Victoria, which rewarded the Coalition by wiping it out at the state and federal level in 2022.
Should Morrison take responsibility for his role in robodebt? And should the Sharks boot him off the team? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
