The election of a new government is supposed to be a new broom, brushing aside past controversies in favour of renewed focus on more pressing problems – problems like the cost of living crisis and stubborn inflation, which this week pushed the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates for the 12th consecutive time.
But instead this week the Albanese government was dragged back to debates of the 46th parliament as the ghosts of the past haunted its attempts to move on from the Morrison era.
Brittany Higgins, who has had to endure an aborted criminal trial of her rape allegation, an ACT inquiry into the handling of the case and possible participation in defamation cases brought by the man she accused (who maintains his innocence), now finds herself at the centre of another political storm.
Leaked text messages, believed to have been collected as part of the investigation of her complaint but not tendered in evidence in the case, call into question finance minister Katy Gallagher’s claims “no one” was aware of Higgins’s complaint before it was aired publicly on 15 February 2021.
The Albanese government’s denial that this claim constituted misleading the Senate has been absolute.
But how to explain missives to Higgins from her partner, David Sharaz, on 11 February? This one: “Katy Gallagher messaged me. She’s angry and wants to help. She’s got the context. Says they knew something was wrong because they fired Bruce and not you. They avoided a scandal.”
And this one: “I gave her [The Project] interview for context. I hope that’s OK? She’s not doing anything with it. But I’m also happy to step out and let her talk to you if you want. Basically, I wanted her to get all the context because it’s so complicated.”
Albanese’s frustration was palpable. He argues it is “bizarre” for the Coalition to claim that after “allegations by a Liberal staffer that another Liberal staffer had a sexual assault in a Liberal minister’s office that somehow Katy Gallagher has some responsibility for what was going on here”.
Of course the Gaetjens report into what Scott Morrison’s office knew should be released. But the Liberals have already paid the price for perceptions of poor handling of gender equality in general, and this complaint in particular.
Now in opposition, they benefit from a form of asymmetric warfare: winning if they can directly prove senior Labor figures were given advance knowledge to help agitate the Higgins complaint in parliament; but winning anyway if they misfire and succeed only in making politics look grubby, which tends to hurt the incumbent government.
Gallagher has insisted she had no role in the settlement of Higgins’ personal injury claim against the commonwealth, which may be enough to stave off any interest from the National Anti-Corruption Commission, where Linda Reynolds is determined to send the matter for investigation.
But at the very least Gallagher should offer the Senate a personal explanation of her denial on 4 June 2021 that “no one had any knowledge” of Higgins’ allegation before it was made.
Parliaments turn over, some members change, major parties may trade places from opposition to government benches, but true renewal takes longer until characters of past controversy no longer remain.
Reynolds, whose Senate term only expires in 2025, continues to feel aggrieved over the way she was portrayed as unsympathetic to Higgins, her former employee.
Scott Morrison still sits in parliament, despite expectation among colleagues he will pull the pin when he’s found the right gig to move on to.
After his resignation in May, Liberal MP Stuart Robert will be replaced at the Fadden byelection on 15 July, a week after the robodebt royal commission delivers its final report.
We were reminded of Robert’s legacy again this week by an auditor general report finding the former Morrison government minister met with a preferred tenderer for a home affairs contract before contract negotiations began, “contrary to the probity plan and protocols”.
Another auditor general report – pick your adjective of choice, it could be scathing, blistering or withering – found that before the 2019 election the federal health department deliberately breached commonwealth grant guidelines in respect of the $2bn community health and hospital program.
It found the then Morrison government decided to fund 11 projects despite the Australian Government Solicitor warning there “would likely be no lawful authority for the expenditure”.
The unseemly rush to spend money ahead of the tight 2019 election now expands from sports rorts and car parks to health. Nothing was off limits, it seems.
The answer is better processes to check lawfulness of grants, that they are going to areas of greatest need and where they will be most effective.
Which is why it was alarming to see the health minister, Mark Butler, propose a new grant category for “explicit decisions of government” which transparency and legal experts – including Prof Anne Twomey – warned appears to “extend the perfunctory assessment of election promise grants” to grants made midterm.
The last thing we need is a process to regularise announcing grants by press release, with a quick tick and flick from the department to check only if the recipient has capacity to deliver and not if the project is any good.
A reputation for doing government differently has to be earned, it can’t just be declared.
At a minimum that should include transparency about Labor figures’ knowledge of the Higgins complaint – even if that is a small part in a wider controversy, and not lowering the bar for future stinky grants programs.
