Thread by @davidfickling

This was an extraordinary response to me.

As if the lesson the government drew from the sports rorts saga was not "using Commonwealth money as an election slush fund is wrong".

But "using Commonwealth money as an election slush fund gets results". #EdenMonaroVotes

Asked whether the announcement of A$270bn in defence spending was linked to the by-election for a seat surrounding defence HQ, Molan said something to the effect of "that's politics, that's how this game works".

But it's not. It's really not.

Westminster systems go into caretaker mode/"election purdah" and avoid major substantive announcements during campaigns that could have an effect on the result, precisely because control of the government budget could be used to swing a result, especially in a close race.

The rules are a bit vague on by-elections because you can't stop all government business the way you would for a general election, but the principle is very clear.

To then see a government Senator just casually joking about this and saying the quiet bit out loud is shocking.

I'd like to find the actual excerpt where Molan was talking, but the thing you'd expect him to say (if even just in a "hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue" sense) is "it's a total coincidence, no connection between the announcement and the result".

Instead he boasts about the swing in defence-heavy booths and goes hur hur hur about how no one said politics isn't a dirty game etc.

It's not a joke. It's corruption of the democratic process.