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A complete list of the Liberal Party’s corruption over the last 7 years

Thanks to the Facebook news ban we’re now somehow the only news site in Australia, so here’s some serious journalism listing all the questionable decisions that ScoMo and co made after he forgot to check with Jenny first.


With Matthew Davis

You can find an updated version of this list at www.mdavis.xyz.

The federal government has:

  1. Cut $14 million from the national audit office, after that office discovered substantial improprieties and wasteful spending (such as the sports rorts, and paying 10 times too much for land for the new Sydney airport). source
  2. Voted against a binding code of conduct designed to ensure politicians act with integrity. source
  3. Blocked a research-backed design change to increase the effectiveness of beverage warnings about drinking during pregnancy (recommended by an independent body) after meeting with lobbyists from alcohol companies who have donated over $300,000 to the Coalition. source
  4. Gave $345,000 to News Corp to build a spelling bee website, discarding any pretense of propriety or fairness by skipping the usual parliamentary checks and tender process, instead just choosing to hand the excessive amount of cash to a company whose industry is neither website building nor education. source
  5. Hid a record-breaking number of expenses from the public in an annual budget, including cash handed to a private rail project, maintaining an abandoned oil rig, and legal action relating to military bases which leaked toxic chemicals. source
  6. Loosened political donation laws. source source
  7. Committed a crime by ignoring a ruling of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. source source
  8. Appointed a failed Liberal candidate to the SBS board instead of any of the ones recommended by the independent nominations panel. source
  9. Prevented parliament from debating whether to set up a National Integrity Commission. source
  10. Set up the COVID-19 National Coordination Committee with no terms of reference, no register of conflicts of interest, and then stacked it with gas company executives who unsurprisingly ended up recommending irrationally pro-gas policies. 690 documents about potential conflicts of interests were deliberately kept hidden. source source source
  11. Blocked parliament from debating significant environmental protection repeals, rushing through the legislation without allowing anyone to discuss it first. source
  12. Lied by claiming they appointed a Liberal party staffer to a job paying half a million dollars per year through an “open merit-driven, competitive process”. It was actually a limited tender not open to all, exempt from procurement rules which guarantee fairness and impartiality. source
  13. Tried to get parliament to vote on new legislation without giving copies of the bill to the people voting on it, and used unprecedented methods to prevent any politician to speak against it. source source source
  14. Paid tens of thousands of dollars to a company which was known to be corrupt, through a tender that was not opened up to all competitors. source
  15. Illegally forged a document to publicly criticise a political opponent. source
  16. Cancelled The Rule of Law and then preventing journalists from reporting on the case against a whistleblower who leaked truthful information in the public interest about senior politicians and law enforcement officials who flagrantly violated serious international laws. The court case is held in secret. The whistleblower’s name is illegal to publish. The witness and lawyers’ residences were raided, and the evidence against the government was confiscated. source source
  17. Extended exemptions for political donation transparency, which are 25 years old and were only supposed to be temporary. source
  18. Paid $39 million to a naval boat manufacturer when not required to because the company failed to fulfill the relevant contract clauses, and they coincidentally donated to the Liberal party. source
  19. Illegally failed to respond to freedom of information (FOI) requests within the statutory 30 day deadline in 92.5% of cases. source
  20. Bought water rights for 50 times more than many valuations, and double the price of the seller’s valuation. source
  21. Lied by claiming that Kevin Rudd had travelled overseas and back during COVID while many Australians are still stranded overseas, when Mr Rudd had actually never left Queensland. source source
  22. Refused to release a report into COVID policy communication strategies, which cost over $500,000. source
  23. Introduced a mandatory code of conduct to force companies like Google to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to large private news companies (but not ABC news nor independent news, nor the Chaser). Google currently drives over 3 billion clicks per year to Australian news companies. Therefore this is like a local plumber demanding that the Yellow Pages pay the plumber for the act of directing plumber-seeking customers to the plumber. This will also undermine the fundamental principles of the web itself, according to its inventor. The laws are written based on the incorrect assumption that news makes up 10% of Google searches when it’s only 1%. source source source source source source
  24. Introduced red tape and distorted the free market by forcing Google to give special insider knowledge of proprietary search algorithm changes to large news companies but not small, independent journalists. It includes ambiguously written clauses about giving news companies access to Google users’ private data. source source
  25. Introduced protections for company executives who trade while insolvent during the pandemic. This is only for cases where the debts are incurred “the ordinary course of business”. Those who try to adapt to the challenging circumstances will not be exempt. In this way the government is incentivising executives to not adapt to the unique circumstances. source
  26. Refused to release the minutes from an important meeting of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee giving COVID advice to the Prime Minister. source source
  27. Created the ABCC ostensibly for reducing corruption, but the ABCC boss himself violated rules and endangered people by ignoring COVID flight restrictions, travelling across the country to interview workers about a rally that happened 8 months prior. source
  28. Refused to release a multilateral trade agreement with China, which involves spending government money on infrastructure in other countries. The lack of transparency exacerbates existing concerns about burdening these other developing nations with unsustainable debt. source source
  29. Deleted records of a $165,000 political donation from a political consultancy with stakeholders who stand to benefit from the government’s $1 billion visa privatization plan, and refused requests for further explanation. source
  30. Kept secret a government-funded report that showed that less than 1 in 3 Australians trust our public service sector. The justification was that the government believed that the report which they wrote would mislead and confuse people. source
  31. Lied by claiming that all grants issued under the controversial $100M sports grant program were eligible for funding, when only 57% were. source
  32. Failed to declare a property worth $1M in a minister’s declaration of interests. source
  33. Failed to declare 2 properties worth more than $1M in another minister’s declaration of interests. source
  34. Approved a $36,000 grant to a shooting club without declaring that the approving minister was a member of that club. source
  35. Allocated sports grant funding based on which candidate projects were in marginal seats, rather than which were the most worthy. Then refused to release legal advice about whether such pork barrelling is illegal, and destroyed evidence about the funding choices. source source source source source
  36. Merged the Australian Federal Police into the Home Affairs department, allowing the minister to exert political influence on investigations. source
  37. Ignored a Royal Commission report which found the government’s Murray-Darling Basin Plan is illegal, whilst refusing to publish their own report which they claim provides a valid rebuttal. source
  38. Abandoned standard tender processes when awarding a $423 million contract to a company with $50k in funds, little experience, no phone number, no mail address, housed in a shack. source source
  39. Refused to publish a report used to justify a $53 million contract to outsource Centrelink call handling. source source
  40. Declared that they will violate a new law, because they don’t like it. source source
  41. Spent $87,000 fighting against a Freedom of Information request about back-room deals, and then lied about the cost. source
  42. Drastically increased the amount of government money spent without a proper tender process, up to $34 billion per month. source
  43. Handed out $17.1M to private TV stations for a grant they didn’t ask for, without offering the money to the public broadcaster. source
  44. Refused a Senate Order to release details about expensive contracts for security, health and infrastructure in their detention camps in PNG. source
  45. Excused the conflict of interest arising when the head of the My Health Record (appointed by the government) privately received money for consultations about the My Health Record. source
  46. Spent 2 years trying to hide documents from Freedom of Information requests, about a serious breach of top secret documents, and mishandling of those documents by a minister. source
  47. Hid a report by the Governor General showing that the government paid twice as much as necessary for new combat vehicles, because such publicity would be bad for the private manufacturer’s future profitability. The company is not even Australian. source source
  48. Lied about the Immigration Minister having no personal connection to someone who benefited from the direct intervention by the Immigration Minister in a visa case. source source source
  49. Spent an undisclosed amount of public money on legal defence for a minister who broken the law for political gain. source
  50. Broke an election promise by cutting $84 million from the ABC (again). source
  51. Exempted a facial recognition system storing data of innocent citizens from standard procurement policy disclosure rules. The excuse is a reliance on security through obscurity rather than actual security. Accuracy figures are also not published. source source source
  52. Increased the jail time for journalists who report on whistleblower’s truthful allegations by a factor of 10. source source
  53. Refused to publish the percentage of calls to the veterans’ suicide help line which go unanswered, because that want negatively impact the brand of the private call centre operator. source
  54. Prohibited public servants from liking social media posts critical of the government, even if anonymous. source
  55. Failed to declare multiple $1600 Foxtel subscriptions gifted to ministers by a lobby group. source
  56. Gave $30 million to Foxtel to boost “under represented sports”, and was unable to explain why free-to-air channels didn’t get the money, because the decision was made without any emails, letter, or supporting documentation. source source
  57. Paid a minister $273 per night to stay in his own home. source
  58. Prevented university newspapers from attending the release of multiple annual budgets like all other newspapers. These particular budgets contained multiple changes which negatively impact university students. source source
  59. Refused to release the results for the trial of a national health register. source
  60. Spent over $3,500 to send a minister to watch the AFL with his wife. source
  61. Spent over $2,700 on a trip to watch polo. source
  62. Spent $10,000 per day to send a single minister to the USA. source
  63. Broke a promise to scrap free lifetime travel for former ministers. The excuse is that the government is to busy to pass legislation through parliament, despite that being the job of the government and of parliament. source
  64. Falsely advertised the closure of the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, despite Parliament rejecting the closure attempt. source
  65. Refused to publish the cost benefit analysis on the agriculture minister’s decision to move a federal agency from Canberra to his own electorate. source
  66. Personally appointed George Brandis’ son’s lawyer to a $370,000 job, without making a conflict of interest declaration. source source
  67. Tried to privatise the database of ASIC (the corporate watchdog). Under private hands the cost journalists must pay to obtain information about potentially corrupt companies would increase. source
  68. Spent over $140,000 for 5 ministers to travel to a country we have no trade or diplomatic ties with, visiting tourist sites and dining in 5 star restaurants. source
  69. Refused to release 5 year old taxi receipts to assist in a fraud case, on the grounds that terrorists could use travel information from 5 years ago to help plan an attack against the minister in question. source
  70. Spent $10,000 to fly the family of 2 ministers to a tropical island for a weekend holiday. source
  71. Voted against a motion asking the Housing Affordability Inquiry to update the senate on how they are progressing with the recommendations the government supported. source
  72. Rejected an inquiry which recommended that citizens accused of tax fraud be treated as innocent until proven guilty. source
  73. Spent $30,000 on a private jet to fly one minister and their partner from Perth to Canberra (instead of catching a normal plane) because a non-business event ran overtime. This is despite the alleged budget emergency. source
  74. Voted against increasing transparency about how much tax large corporations pay. source
  75. Violated parliamentary anti-corruption rules by not declaring a substantial loan for almost 2 years. source
  76. Broke an election promise to conduct and publish a cost benefit analysis for all infrastructure projects over $100 million. source
  77. Spent over $20,000 in a legal fight in order to hide modelling for the impact of university fee deregulation. source source
  78. Spent thousands of government dollars on taxi rides to the Opera in just 8 days. The government claims that the expenditure is reasonable because the minister didn’t pay for the tickets either. source
  79. Spent thousands of government dollars on limousine rides, and fudged the declaration paperwork to say they were taxi rides. source
  80. Spent $10,000 trying to chase down someone who leaked information to the media about how the Prime Minister deliberately and knowingly used false information to justify opposition to a defence force pay rise. source
  81. Spent $27,000 on travel expenses for politicians to attend free sports events. source
  82. Voted against a royal commission into corruption and misconduct in the financial service industry, following a series of scandals. source
  83. Reaped $1000 per month of government money to pay for Joe Hockey to stay in his wife’s house. source
  84. Proposed an exemption so that Australia’s richest companies no longer have to publish basic information about how much tax they are paying. source
  85. Accidentally leaked the personal details of 31 world leaders, and chose not to notify them. They still claim your metadata will be safe though. source
  86. Breached the criminal code of conduct by offering the independently appointed Human Rights Commissioner a new job if she resigned. source
  87. Flew across the country on a taxpayer funded private jet to attend the private birthday party of a millionaire who has made large donations to the Liberal party. source
  88. Refused to publish cost estimates for the data-retention policy which were provided by the industry. source
  89. Voted to keep the text of the China Free Trade deal secret from the public. source
  90. Abolished the $10,000 limit on political donations. source
  91. Broke the law by missing the deadline for publishing the Intergenerational Report, as stipulated by the Charter of Budget Honesty Act. source
  92. Spent $10,000 trying to identify a whistleblower who told the media that the Prime Minister knowingly mislead the public using information he knew was incorrect. source
  93. Started an online petition to stop job losses at the ABC, just 36 hours after cutting ABC funding by 5% (which broke an election promise). source
  94. Contracted out the managing of the Do Not Call Register to a marketing company. source
  95. Secretly and retrospectively changed the official record of what was said in parliament. source
  96. Broke an election promise by cutting ABC funding again ($120 million this time). source source
  97. Spent $900,000 in just 2 months on private jet flights for ministers. source
  98. Forced all community TV stations off the air, claiming that moving online will be better for stations and viewers. Meanwhile they continue to fervently defend foreign corporate stations like HBO, who stubbornly refuse to make content accessible online. source
  99. Introduced new laws which mean Edward Snowden type leaks are punishable by up to 10 years of prison. No exemptions are made for anti-corruption leaks. If journalists report on anyone (including innocent bystanders) being killed accidentally or deliberately by security personnel, they will be jailed for up to 10 years. source source source source
  100. Spent $50,000 on upgrades of curtains and upholstery for the Prime Minister’s office. source
  101. Moved to abolish the role of freedom of information commissioner, abolish the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and charge $800 for reviews of Freedom of Information Request denials. source
  102. Refused to publish any submissions it received for or against the proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, even though the government says the changes are to protect free speech. They refused to state what proportion of submissions supported the changes. The government defended this secrecy by claiming that all submissions were made with the expectation of confidentiality. This is false. The Senate Inquiry Submission Guidelines state that to make a Senate Inquiry Submission confidential, you must explicitly justify a request for confidentiality, and that such requests are generally denied. source source
  103. Lied about the Australian Federal Police advising Tony Abbott not to visit Deakin University for safety reasons. source
  104. Gave the Minister for Infrastructure the power to silence Infrastructure Australia (an independent body) without justification. (See section 5A.2 of the link.) source
  105. Deliberately hid the cost of the $4.45 million renovations on The Lodge. source
  106. Spent $50,000 on one dinner for 60 G20 guests, including food specially flown to Washington from all over Australia. source
  107. Voted against the creation of a federal anti-corruption watchdog. source
  108. Cut $38 million from Australian television and film funding. source
  109. Broke an election promise by cutting $40 million from the SBS and ABC. source source source
  110. Broke an election promise to not cut ABC funding, by cutting all funding to the Australia Network (part of the ABC). source source source
  111. Claimed a 2.5% reduction in funding every year for the ABC is not a funding cut. source
  112. Increased the fee for lodging Freedom of Information requests. source
  113. Paid a public relations company $97,000 for 3 weeks of work to help improve the Education Department’s image, then refused to release the report that came of it. source
  114. Proposed the scrapping of regulation which prevents media monopolies and duopolies. source
  115. Spent over $15,000 on a custom made bookcase to replace a $7,000 custom bookcase which holds $13,000 worth of taxpayer funded books and magazines in senator Brandis’ office. source
  116. Spent $22,000 taxpayer dollars buying new cutlery and crockery for the ministerial wing of parliament. source
  117. Chose not to mention a $882 million payout to News Corp. when outlining a $16.8 billion budget black hole. The payout was the single biggest item in the black hole. source source
  118. Denied any wrongdoing after a government aid married to the head of a junk food lobby pulled down a government website providing simplified nutritional information within hours of its launch. source
  119. Violated Youtube’s policies regarding deceptive content, resulting in the suspension of Abbott’s whole channel. source
  120. Criticised the ABC because they aren’t biased towards the Government. source
  121. Spent over $120,000 on Kirribilli House, including $13,000 on an imported luxury rug, paid for by the taxpayer. source
  122. Tried to silence the media to stop them criticising the upcoming private jet deal for politicians. source
  123. Changed the ministerial code of conduct so ministers no longer have to sell shares which create a conflict of interest. source
  124. Made Orwellian threats about cutting ABC funding because the government didn’t like one of their stories, and because their quality of journalism is too high, thereby creating competition which threatens the corporate newspaper duopoly (who are now floundering because they didn’t see the internet coming). source

List compiled by Matthew Davis. You can view the full list of 902 points at www.mdavis.xyz

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