Scott Morrison, former PM and architect of Robodebt, got a large ‘secret handshake’ payout when sacked by Tourism Australia. After a 4-year battle the FOIs finally surface for Jommy Tee.
The political career of Scott Morrison was built on punching down at welfare recipients. Yet, in a bitter twist of irony, the architect of the pernicious Robodebt scheme was himself the beneficiary of a massive, secret overpayment when sacked as managing director of Tourism Australia in 2006.
Newly released documents, finally brought to light after a four-year Freedom of Information (FOI) battle, reveal that Scott Morrison was, according to the Remuneration Tribunal, overpaid by up to $212,000 in a “handshake” severance deal designed to facilitate his swift and quiet exit.
While Morrison later launched his infamous Robodebt “welfare cop” blitz a decade later – fronting the media straight-faced determined to crack down on rorters and those that had been allegedly overpaid – the highly inflated severance payment he himself received was never widely reported.
The FOI documents expose the hypocrisy at the heart of the matter: how the political class take care of their own while the innocent are fair game to be hunted, harassed and bullied. Morrison’s own windfall, paid out to ensure a “certainty and seamless” separation from the public service, was never pursued. No “welfare cop” was sent to his door.
Minister Fran Bailey initiates Scomo’s sacking
The move to sack Scott Morrison from his post as Managing Director of Tourism Australia (TA) began with a single, decisive phone call in the last days of July 2006. It followed the “Where the bloody hell are you” campaign. New documents detailing the crisis – specifically the minutes and papers of Board Meeting No. 18, which spanned three days – reveal the machinations around his highly paid exit.
The sequence of events was swift and brutal. According to the board minutes, then Tourism Minister, Fran Bailey, who had reportedly clashed repeatedly with Morrison during his tenure, rang TA Chair Tim Fischer to deliver the message: she and the government had officially “lost confidence” in Morrison.
Further Reading: https://michaelwest.com.au/brawl-over-scott-morrisons-big-secret-payment-on-sacking-by-tourism-australia/
Interesting that the (ir)responsible board included the Dept Secretary. In my (earlier) days, as an APS officer on such boards, one role was to guide the board against breaches of government remuneration policy, and to alert the minister if that guidance was failing.
Fran Bailey would’ve been wrapped when she realised he had weasled his way into parliament a year later.