While Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie has been forced to resign over the “sports rorts” affair, the matter is far from settled. It’s likely to feature heavily in parliamentary debate in the coming days. 

One of the outstanding issues is the very different findings by the Audit Office report and by the review undertaken by the head of the prime minister’s department, Phil Gaetjens. Scott Morrison has said he will not release the Gaetjens report, so we can only go on the quotes Morrison read from it in his press conference announcing McKenzie’s resignation.

 

Read more:

https://theconversation.com/the-sports-rorts-affair-shows-the-need-for-a...

Politically, when in a democratic government, helping one’s party ahead of other people is a foul... Democracy is to be shared without favours, under the decisions made by the majority of people. No favours. This does not happen of course. The trick is to appear to share, while favourably loading the dice to win the next round.

 

Mondrian used simple straight lines, right angles, primary colours, black, white, and grey for a formal purity to embodied a spiritual belief in a harmonious cosmos. 

They don’t represent the crooked lines and colours of politics. 


But this did not stop the community of artists supporting each other… The taxman cometh, knocks on Mondrian’s door, Rue du Départ, Montparnasse. 
"I’m here to collect due taxes from the painter,” says he…
Mondrian is panicking. 
“Please protect me..” he whispered in the ear of his friend, the Russian (another Russian already mentioned on this site) sculptor, Anton (Antoine) Pevsner…
“[But] Monsieur only paints five or six canvas a year! Look at what this poor man eats!” said Pevsner to the taxman, showing him the eternal caldron simmering on the gas stove, where most spiritual carrots were cooking slowly… It seems that Mondrian ate frugally, apparently for scientific reasons.
“You won’t have to pay a cent, Monsieur Mondrian! I was misinformed…” said the taxman.
Once the tax collector gone, Mondrian thanked his friend:
“you saved my life! "… 
Mondrian could have been the most timid person in Paris. Thin face, inquisitive brow, sad mouth, hair thinning on the top... He saved money on not buying tomato jam — his preferred food fare — in order to acquire jazz records and phonographs that he painted red. Just red. He loved red. Tomato red.
He hated trees, though he’d painted some when learning art. His nickname was “Batave”… If you don’t know why, look "Batavia" up…
With his astonishing synchromies, synchronised symphonies, of squares and colours, Mondrian became one of the most celebrated modern painters. New York became blue, red, yellow, white but no black.

in 1917 Mondrian and three other painters— Doesburg, van der Leck, and Huszar — had founded the periodical of the new movement, De Stijl. De Stijl was about the total rejection of visually perceived reality as a subject matter and about restricting the pictorial expression to the most basic straight lines, primary colours, neutrals of black, white, and grey. The idea of this new style, for which Mondrian coined the name neoplasticism, was to eliminate subjective visual perception and the emotions of the artist. Mondrian could thus render his true vision of reality, which was not a fragment of reality but an overall abstract view of the harmony of the universe. 



Tell this to Scomo's neopoliticising philistines...

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has reiterated her threat to scupper the Morrison government’s union-busting bill if it doesn’t release a secret report into the sports rorts scandal.

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Now release the damn report,” Senator Lambie told ABC Radio on Thursday.

The Tasmanian senator had already lambasted the government during a scathing speech in the Senate earlier this month, claiming the Prime Minister was taking Australians for “morons” over the affair.

Scott Morrison is under fresh scrutiny over his part in the scandal, after it emerged 136 emails about the scheme were sent between his office and that of the minister responsible.

The Auditor-General found the controversial $100 million program favoured Coalition-targeted seats ahead of the May 18 election.

The Australian National Audit Office told the Senate on Wednesday there were 136 emails sent between the Prime Minister’s office and key staff of former sport minister Bridget McKenzie.

Senator McKenzie also sent a list of grants she intended to approve to Mr Morrison on the day before last year’s federal election was called.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese labelled the program corrupt after probing the Prime Minister’s involvement during question time.

“This rort knows no bounds,” he told Parliament on Wednesday.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2020/02/27/...

 

Please prove to us that Scott Morrison isn't corrupt...

Scott Morrison has attempted to step around evidence to the Senate inquiry probing the sports rorts controversy by asserting grants were approved by Bridget McKenzie on 4 April – days before before the parliament was dissolved for the 2019 election.

The Australian National Audit Office has told the Senate inquiry, in answers to questions on notice, that McKenzie, the former sports minister, wrote to the prime minister on 10 April attaching spreadsheets of projects she intended to fund, summarised by state, political party and electorate. She then provided the signed approval brief, which was dated 4 April, to Sport Australia on 11 April.

Sport Australia told the Senate inquiry on Thursday it received the final list of projects from the minister’s office 17 minutes after the government entered the caretaker period last April, and one day after it was sent to the prime minister’s office.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/28/scott-morrison-ma...

 

 

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Yep. I know an old timer who can run faster backwards than the sports rorts controversy...

 

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The Morrison government will not say whether it was aware of ties between Liberal MP Andrew Laming's office and a local rugby club before it promised a half-a-million-dollar grant to the club during the 2019 federal election campaign.

Key points:

• The Southern Bay Cyclones Rugby Union Club won a grant as part of the Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream in 2019
• A staff member in Andrew Laming's office, Stephanie Eaton, is married to the secretary of that rugby club, James Eaton
• It is not known whether the rugby club has any female teams or female players

The grant to build a new clubhouse for the Southern Bay Cyclones Rugby Union Club in Redland Bay, Queensland, was part of a controversial government program to promote women's sport known as the Female Facilities and Water Safety Stream.

"When it was announced the alarm bells went off straight away because the club itself didn't have any female teams. To my knowledge, it still doesn't," Don Brown, a Queensland state Labor MP, told 7.30.

The secretary of the rugby club is James Eaton, whose wife Stephanie works in Dr Laming's electorate office. 

There is no mention of women's teams on the club's website.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-13/questions-over-andrew-lamings-link-to-rugby-club-that-won-grant/100064194

 

Look, Gus "knows"(he knows no such thing) that Laming was pushing for a female rugby team there, but until the PALATIAL changerooms had been constructed, Laming could not even think about it... With his record of taking pictures of female arses — sorry I mean: female bending over in a store — one would think he could install some security cameras to make sure the ladies in the showers would not use too much soap. 

 

Let's hope his rehab in compassion and empathy training turns him into an acetic monk... see:

clowns have empathy...

 

Read from top especially the toon above and:

 

assange

Cartoon below from The New Yorker (c. 1960). Mischief by Gus Leonisky.

 

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Free Julian Assange Now

 

artistry...

 

By Noel Turnbull

 

It is now known that one person in the Prime Minister’s office drew up the spreadsheets for both the sports and car park rorts.

While this is unsurprising, given the nature and standard operating practice of the Morrison Government, it raises questions about the way the role of advisors has developed.

While the Prime Minister insists Ministers make decisions in cases such as these everyone in Canberra knows they are made in the PM’s office – representing a major change in the number, role, nature and accountability of staffers.

Given the power of this individual and the role they played in the rorts we ought to know who this staffer is; and, what his/her authority (probably not her given the PM’s attitudes to women) was to make the decisions.

No doubt everyone in the Canberra media knows who the individual is. One might ask why they aren’t they being named and why shouldn’t the public be allowed to learn which unelected staffer is making decisions about hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars being spent on rorts?

The obvious answer is that any journalist brave enough to do so would be immediately taken off the drip of background briefings which provide most of the Canberra Press Gallery’s copy.

John Daley’s new Grattan Institute report – Gridlock – which analyses why Australia has descended into policy paralysis and a relentless pursuit of political rather than national advantage throws light on the role of Ministerial advisors in this failure.

In the Whitlam era staffers made the news in their own right – witness Junie Morosi – but there were also a lot of policy wonks and experienced professionals who also had their say.

The Fraser era was more subdued in some respects and Ministers such as Andrew Peacock had expert, experienced advisors such as John Ridley. Ministers also had a leavening of public servants trained to serve whoever was the government of the day.

Since then there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Ministerial advisors and major changes in their backgrounds and how the operate.

Daley reports that “the number of Ministerial staffers grew from 210 in 1983 to 339 in 1996, fell back under the Rudd Government and has risen to 450 today. Traditionally, for instance in the Keating years, many of them were public servants but now only 20% of staffers are drawn from the public service and the rest are party hacks.”

Their names are not public and although they are subject to a Statement of Standards for Ministerial Staff there is a big black hole about who they are and what they do.

The Thodey Review of the Australian public service came up with recommendations which would produce a better Australian administrative system.

Among his recommendations was for a legislated code of conduct and limits on political appointments. Morrison rejected the recommendation along with anything else which would get in the way of the government using national resources to further its party political objectives.

Daley says: “for more than 30 years, governments have not shown any interest in restraining the growth and politicisation of ministerial advisers with little accountability. That’s a pity, because institutional changes…..would improve the chances of policy reform.”

“Ministers would receive less advice focused on the short-term impact on public debate, and more advice focused on the long-term public interest. As observed by Martin Parkinson, previously Secretary to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, advisers tend to focus too much on ‘message over substance’.

“Ministers would also probably receive less advice to avoid the high-quality inquiries that improve policy evidence bases and the ways that systematic policy processes can shift public opinion over the long term rather than simply shifting the media coverage the next day.

Most importantly “The echo chambers that reinforce shibboleths would be less reinforced by partisan ministerial advisers concerned to toe the party line to improve their future career prospects,” Daley said.

Thodey recommended a formal arrangement for Ministerial advisors with a series of measures to make them more accountable and to ensure that expert public service advice was part of the advisory mix.

Currently advisors are invisible despite everyone in Canberra media knowing who they are and reporting daily on the drips they get fed by them. Sometimes it’s not even the advisors who do the dripping. Whenever you see reference to a source being ‘a senior Liberal’ it usually relates to a text from Morrison – often sent during parliamentary sessions.

Indeed, whenever he turns his back on the Opposition in Parliament and plays with his phone that’s generally what he is doing – ridiculing the Opposition and giving a few select journalists a quotable line.

None of the Canberra media can afford to let their readers know what is happening and who the sources are for fear of being taken off the drip.

Daley also points out how policy development has also been undermined by the way senior public servants are prevented from saying anything other than the Government’s official talking points.

“Since 2015 Commonwealth Treasury Secretaries have not published speeches on long term policy and the eight articles a year analysis relevant to economic policy issues published a year from 1997 have been discontinued,” Daley said.

The end result of all this abandonment of traditional practice is probably epitomised by a comment Daley cites from an Inside Story article (25 June 2021) pointing out that 12 out of the 23 members of the current cabinet have been involved in incidents which might have led to their resignations in the past.

And as for our anonymous spreadsheet staffer – Ministerial advisors can’t be compelled to appear before parliamentary committees; no-one in the Press Gallery will name them for fear of retribution; and Morrison and Co will continue to deny that that there was any corruption involved. Only the voters will be left in the dark.

 

Read more: https://johnmenadue.com/the-mystery-political-staffer-running-government-rorting/

 

 

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The "expert" staffers are under instructions from the PM. The PM, ScoMierdo, should be getting the apple cream tart in his face and be thrown out. But the mediocre mass media de mierda will still support Morrison, even if he is dead...

 

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BY Vince O'Grady

 

“Sports Rorts” and assorted grants schemes manipulated for political gains by the former Coalition government are not merely corrupt but probably illegal too, writes Vince O’Grady. O’Grady found the political bias persisted not only in Sports allocations but throughout the more than $7bn in grants programs. And that is before even analysing the almost half a trillion in government contracts since 2013.

We all know about the colour coded spreadsheets. They were leaked to the ABC following the damming report on the Sports infrastructure scheme. But that is where the majority of the media left it.

There is much, much more.

The Australian National Audit office (ANAO) report into the Community Sports infrastructure Program was deemed necessary by that body following a referral from Mark Dreyfus, the shadow Attorney General.  

Sport Australia is an independent government body created under the Australian Sports Commission Act 1989. It doesn’t fall under the grants rules and guidelines which Commonwealth departments must follow, but that doesn’t mean that it can give out money as it sees fit.

It is still governed by a set of rules which must be followed so that the money is well spent.

The ANAO report highlighted many of these requirements. They were explored further by a Senate Select committee on Administration of Sports grants.

Are they even legal?

For example, are they legal?

Submissions (14 and 16) from legal experts from the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney suggest not. 

They question whether the Government had the constitutional power to actually award Sporting Infrastructure grants, Whether the Minister had the power under the Act to approve these grants and whether the laws covering administration of public monies had been adhered to. I also questioned whether or not a criminal act (forgery of a Commonwealth document) had been committed by changing the grants awarded (on April 11, 2019) after the minister had signed off on them on April 4, 2019, under the same signature.

Then of course there is the paper trail between the Prime Minister’s department and the Minister’s office asking for certain changes which were well outside of the grants guidelines and the authority of approval. Much of this has not been canvassed in the press. 

Another parliamentary committee, the Joint Committee on Accounts and Audit (JCPAA) also looked at the sports infrastructure grants and the ANAO report. Its report was No 848 where Sports infrastructure Grants were again scrutinised.

 

 

 

READ MORE:

https://michaelwest.com.au/judgement-day-is-coming-for-sports-rorts-other-coalition-grants-schemes/

 

 

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An artwork by the abstract Dutch painter Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside down in various galleries for 75 years, an art historian has said.

Despite the recent discovery, the work, entitled New York City I, will continue to be displayed the wrong way up to avoid it being damaged.

The 1941 picture was first put on display at New York's MoMA in 1945.

It has hung at the art collection of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf since 1980.

Curator Susanne Meyer-Büser noticed the longstanding error when researching the museum's new show on the artist earlier this year, but warned it could disintegrate if it was hung the right side up now.

New York City I is an adhesive-tape version of the similarly named New York City painting by the same artist. 

 'Wrong way around'

"The thickening of the grid should be at the top, like a dark sky," Meyer-Büser told The Guardian, about the unfinished and unsigned red, blue and yellow striped lattice artwork.

"Once I pointed it out to the other curators, we realised it was very obvious. It is very likely the picture is the wrong way around," she added when contacted by the BBC.

 

READ MORE:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63423811

 

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