A place to discuss Australia Politics.
This community is run under the rules of aussie.zone.
Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:
https://aussie.zone/communities
Briefly heard this being discussed with a lawyer on ABC radio yesterday.
"would the ministers be liable?" "look, that's not clear yet. They could argue that they were performing their ministerial duties..."
When do we go full French on our political class?
Their day job seems to be to enriching themselves by fucking the country, and if they get caught face zero consequences. Shit's fucked.
Morrison mislead cabinet so if the defence of 'performing ministerial duties' holds up then fuck that's some bullshit.
Controversial opinion but I think those responsible should compensate the victims with their own money. The shitlist of people in the secret section (scomo, alan tudge, stuart robert etc) should pay.
Have ministers or public servants ever been held personally responsible for negligence? The harshest consequences I can think of is just prison time but the civil damages are paid out by the govt.
I'm reasonably pro good governance and the need to levy a burden to keep the roads built and services on, but this is just criminal. That individual ministers and staffers that gave evidence showing they knew it was illegal, but did it anyway, with no consequences, shows how broken the system is.
If you wish to behave in this way in public office, in the name of populist ideology, instead of good governance, we should be able to "lift the veil" and go for the jugular.