RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

Pressure has started to mount on the Federal government following a string of scandals involving senior public officials.
Labor and crossbench senators used Senate hearings this week to forensically examine government departments, bureaucrats and ministers.

Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper Paul Bongiorno on the government’s attempts to use COVID-19 to deflect criticism.

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RUBY:

Paul, this week, scandals were starting to mount in Canberra. Let’s talk about those, and also, the questions that Labor has been asking of the Morrison government.

PAUL:

Well, that's right. Ruby, we've just come through two weeks of Senate estimates where Labour's able to ask questions of bureaucrats and ministers, and I'd have to say the opposition senators haven't squandered the opportunity to call the government to account. Senators and not just Labor senators have seized on the forensic work carried out by the Auditor-General, and indeed their own ferreting, to reveal disturbing extravagance, misguided entitlement and incompetence, if not corruption.

Archival Tape -- Speaker

“Questions without notice - The Member for Rankin.”

Archival Tape -- Jim Chalmers

“Thank you Mr Speaker, my question is to the Treasurer-...”

PAUL:

Labor began this week with a series of questions in the House to build a picture of a government looking after its mates and doing its best to minimise opportunities to be held further to account.

Archival Tape -- Senator 1

“Thank you Mr Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister-...”

Archival Tape -- Senator 2

“Thanks Mr Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister-...”

Archival Tape -- Senator 3

“Thank you Mr Speaker, my question is to the Treasurer-...”

Archival Tape -- Senator 1

“...so why does the Prime Minister treat taxpayers’ money as his own?”

Archival Tape -- Senator 2

“...why did he keep the misuse of taxpayer funds secret from Australian taxpayers?”

Archival Tape -- Anthony Albanese

“...when they’ve frequently shown they draw no distinction between taxpayers’ interests and their own political and private interests when spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars”

PAUL:

Now, the most obvious example is sitting on the legislation to establish a Federal Integrity Commission, which officials from the Attorney-General's Department revealed in estimates, the government's had since December last year.

RUBY:

So this would be a body like the Independent Commission Against Corruption ICAC in New South Wales, which would investigate politicians over misconduct and corruption?

PAUL:

Yes, well, it's by all accounts, even from the government itself, a slightly weaker version of that gold standard. But it's obvious even a weaker version is too much for Morrison. Last week, he was indignant, telling Parliament he couldn't possibly have people working on an integrity commission. While it was a Coronavirus to deal with.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison

“Now, Mr Speaker, I was not going to have one public servant diverted from the task of focussing on our whole governmental approach to dealing with this pandemic…”

PAUL:

And Ruby, this week he again went for COVID cover. When Albanese threw at him a growing list of scandals.

Archival Tape -- Anthony Albanese

“Is the reason why the Morrison government hasn’t introduced legislation for a national integrity commission because of: the sports rorts scheme, the leckington…”

PAUL:

By now they're very familiar, you could probably list them off: the sports rorts, spending 100 million dollars for electoral advantage with targeted grants, then there was the thirty million dollars paid for a piece of land valued at three million dollars. And then the stacking of the Appeals Tribunal with 70 Liberals, many of them former MP’s. Well, in his reply, Scott Morrison was indignant and he waxed lyrical.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison

“Mr Speaker, the presumption of the question is false. Mr Speaker, what we've seen today, I think, is a very good commentary on what's happening in this chamber.”

PAUL:

The Prime Minister said the government was focussed on the virus and it was out saving the sick and keeping the country in business.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison

“The Government is focussed on the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 recession. Saving lives, saving livelihoods, Mr Speaker. Protecting Australians…”

PAUL:

He accused Albanese basically of muckraking. And he went on, the Prime Minister, to accuse the Opposition of playing politics while he got on with good government.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison

“And the Labour Party comes in here to throw mud around. That's the contrast, Mr Speaker, an opposition focussed on politics…”

RUBY:

But you say despite Scott Morrison's, I suppose, optimistic take, that there has been evidence of misconduct in the Government?

PAUL:

Well, if not misconduct, certainly incompetence and for a lot of that, we can thank the Auditor-General Grant Hehir who's causing embarrassment with his forensic probing, especially over the millions of dollars paid to the Liberal Party donors for that land near Sydney's second airport. And a sure sign that the government doesn't like it: the Liberals have slashed the Auditor-General's budget by almost 20 per cent since they came to power in 2013.

Now, I can tell you, Ruby, there's speculation in Canberra that the next target for Hehir’s detective work could be the much lauded 100 billion dollar JobKeeper scheme. Now, there's no doubt the scheme saved a million jobs and bought time for hundreds of thousands of workers. But that cannot excuse the unconscionable siphoning off of millions of dollars by business. According to some analysis, more than 24 million dollars of the wage subsidy was used to pay executive bonuses. That is money going to people whose jobs weren't at risk but were able to fatten their already fat incomes. The extent of the corruption of the scheme certainly merits further investigation and exposure.

RUBY:

We'll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Paul, we're talking about the Auditor-General and serious questions he's raising for the government over transparency and conduct. So tell me a little bit more about that.

PAUL:

Well, Ruby, taxpayers should be grateful that in Grant Hehir we have an Auditor-General who's fearless in fulfilling his statutory obligations to hold to account the federal government's stewardship of the nation's finances. Estimates this week heard that after querying contentious expenditure at the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission - that's ASIC - well... Hehir was ignored.

After 12 months, he’d had enough and he wrote to the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, about his concerns. He identified overpayments of two hundred thousand dollars to ASIC Chairman James Shipton and his deputy, Daniel Crennan, which has led to Shipton standing aside pending an independent inquiry, and Crennan quitting. Well midweek, the Prime Minister was asked if he had confidence in ASIC or if he believed the organisation needed a broader restructure.

Archival Tape -- Journalist

“On ASIC, do you have confidence in the organisation? And also, it’s stood aside Chairman James Shipton, who you appointed as Treasurer…”

PAUL:

The Prime Minister and I have to say in his usual fashion, distanced himself from the appointment, saying it was all the work of then Revenue and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer.

Archival Tape -- Scott Morrison

“Well, the appointment, I was Treasurer at the time. The Minister responsible at the time was Kelly O'Dwyer, as you know, and she was in Cabinet at the time, of course, that I had a role in that process…”

PAUL:

Morrison said it wasn't appropriate for him to offer commentary while an inquiry was underway; he wasn't so reticent, you might remember, about Australia Post. Anyway, the government now has two ad hoc independent enquiries into potentially corrupt or inappropriate behaviour at ASIC and in the infrastructure department over that second airport land purchase.

RUBY:

Mm. So, Paul, there's been time to set up these two ad hoc enquiries, but at the same time, Scott Morrison is arguing that he can't establish an integrity commission because he's busy dealing with the pandemic. Does that stack up?

PAUL:

Well, you'd have to say that Covid is providing the government with a very thin cover, Ruby, and it's leading to some strange politics as both sides look to score points - on Tuesday, when the Andrews government in Victoria finally announced that the 112 day lockdown was ending. Albanese caught Morrison and many on his own side. I have to tell you by surprise,

Archival Tape -- Speaker of The House

“The leader of the opposition.”

Archival Tape -- Anthony Albanese

‘Thank you. Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move the following motion that the House, 1) commends the people of Victoria…”

PAUL:

The Labour leader leapt to his feet at the beginning of Question Time and moved a motion to congratulate Victorians and their Premier for their efforts.

Archival Tape -- Anthony Albanese

“...4) expresses its gratitude to the people of Victoria on behalf of a grateful nation, and 5) resolves that this message be conveyed to the Premier of Victoria.”

Archival Tape -- Speaker

“Is leave granted? The leader of the House.”

Archival Tape -- The Leader

“Leave is granted!”

PAUL:

Well, the Prime Minister nodded to the leader of the House that he would accept the surprise motion, but then Morrison went into a huddle with Frydenberg and his health minister, Greg Hunt. Now in his motion, Albanese echoed health experts praising Victoria's efforts of going from 723 new cases on July 30 to zero on Monday and Tuesday.

Archival Tape -- Anthony Albanese

“The whole of Australia has benefited from the fact that the Victorian Government listened to the health advice, took action and ensured that those numbers were turned around so that instead of an increase in the UK from 846 to 20,000, they went from 723 new cases to zero. To zero cases…”

PAUL:

But Frydenberg, a constant critic of the lockdown, would have none of it.

Archival Tape -- Josh Frydenberg

“And the more than 800 Victorians who have lost their lives, their families will never get those ones back. Mr Speaker. And It all comes back to the failures in hotel quarantine…”

PAUL:

He bellowed, The comparison is not with the United Kingdom or the United States, but with the rest of Australia.

Archival Tape -- Josh Frydenberg

“The comparison is with New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, and South Australia Mr Speaker!”

PAUL:

Well I've got to say, his speech was pretty extraordinary. And you can guess what was discussed in that huddle. But the role of attack dog, it seems to me, doesn't exactly suit Frydenberg. One of his colleagues says he's acting on instructions from Morrison. Now, the suspicion is that the Attorney-General is also acting on the same instructions in keeping the Integrity Commission legislation in his desk drawer. Well, that's how you end up with the week we've just had: with rolling scandals not properly investigated and a government looking a little more confident than perhaps it should.

RUBY:

And Paul, it's the Queensland state election tomorrow, you're pretty plugged in, what's your tip?

PAUL:

Well, there's no doubt it's going to be a close election. The latest three published opinion polls have Labour with an edge, but there's no doubt Labour's extremely nervous about its situation in far north Queensland, Townsville and Cairns. And there's no doubt they're just a bit worried about the 6 million dollars Clive Palmer has spent on anti-Labour ads and billboards all over the state.

While it looks like Palmer's not as credible as he used to be, you can't spend that much money on anti-Labour advertising and it doesn't have some sort of effect. So I think this one is going to go down to the wire, but Palaszczuk can't be underestimated - she's been a two times winner and is a known quantity in Government. And there's also no doubt that COVID and her response to the pandemic has won her a lot of support in the Sunshine State. But we'll see.

RUBY:

Paul, thank you so much for talking to me.

PAUL:

Thank you, Ruby. Bye.

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**

RUBY:

Also in the news today, NSW health authorities have confirmed the state’s first mystery COVID-19 infection in over two weeks. Two students were among the five infections recorded in the state yesterday, prompting a school to close in Sydney’s south-west.

And the NRL has backflipped on a decision to not play the National Anthem at State of Origin games.The Australian Rugby League Commission reversed it’s plan after an intervention by the Prime Minister, who called the NRL’s chairman.

7am is a daily show from The Monthly and The Saturday Paper.

It’s produced by Ruby Schwartz, Atticus Bastow, and Michelle Macklem.

Elle Marsh is our features and field producer, in a position supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.

Brian Campeau mixes the show.

Our editor is Osman Faruqi. Erik Jensen is our editor-in-chief.

Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio.

New episodes of 7am are released every weekday morning.

You can subscribe on your favourite podcast app to make sure you don’t miss out.

I’m Ruby Jones, see you next week,.