moving forward.
On Sunday, Bridget McKenzie finally resigned from the ministry – setting off a leadership battle in the National Party in the process – but not for stealing $100 million dollars of Sports Australia’s money to run a re-election slush fund. It was a technicality, her membership of a clay target shooting club to whom she gave a grant constituted an conflict of interest in breach of the ministerial code.
Continue reading “You can break the law. Just don’t break my rules.”
Last night, Daniel Wild, the Director of Research at conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, published an article on Sky News in which he argues that Senator McKenzie is the victim of a “political hit-job” carried out by the ANAO at the request of shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus.
Mr Wild is wrong and his article shows an incredible lack of research and a lack understanding of how the ANAO, the public service and Australian democracy work. This post will explain why he is wrong by annotating the entire article.
Continue reading “IPA researcher Wild doesn’t understand the ANAO. Or democracy. Or much of anything, really.”
When a public servant appropriates $100 million in government money for dishonest purposes contrary to law, we call it theft; a criminal offence which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. When the public servant’s boss – the Minister – does it, however, it seems we’re not supposed to care.
Continue reading “Lock Her Up!”