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Jul 25 • 17 tweets • 7 min read
Lest we forget…
As the new Australian Parliament begins work, it is worth remembering that the last government led by @ScotMorrison was truly a ‘wrecking crew’.
Post-election revelations have reminded us just how much damage they did.
Here’s a thread…
🧵#auspol #wreckingcrew
Infamously, Scott Morrison indicated to fellow believers at his church last weekend that it is right not to have trust in government. 'Wrecking crew' politicians want none of us to have trust in government. theguardian.com/australia-news…
A decade or so ago, US commentator Tom Frank coined the idea of ‘wrecking crew’ politicians who - perversely - deliberately or recklessly seek to govern badly in order to advance an extreme ideological agenda: tcfrank.com/product/the-wr…
The aim of ‘wrecking crew’ politics is that the whole idea of government is damaged and discredited. People stop believing in the power of government to do helpful things - and may even stop believing in the whole idea of the public good:
It is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.
As a ‘wrecking crew’ prime minister, Morrison led a government that evidently could not be trusted...and so created the conditions for loss of trust in government:
So, apart from the sermon, what else have we learned since the election? More damning details of classic ‘wrecking crew’ behaviour have emerged…
Politicians appointing mates to public office is core ‘wrecking crew’ activity because it corrodes confidence in the whole system of fair government administration for the public good.
We saw a heap of ‘jobs for mates’ under Morrison:
Since the election we have learned, courtesy of new research, new detail of just how badly the Morrison government’s jobs for mates has compromised the functioning of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal: thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/…
The situation with the AAT is so bad, that leading experts are now saying there is no alternative but for this vital institution to be dissolved and replaced: publicintegrity.org.au/media-release-…
I am an environmentalist - I wrote the ‘wrecking crew’ thread series because the failure of government integrity is closely connected to the climate and ecological crises:
As Professor Joo-Cheong Tham has written since the election, the integrity of our democracy and doing what is necessary to secure a safer climate in the future are intimately connected: publicintegrity.org.au/whats-climate-…
(Then) Environment Minister Sussan Ley hiding the shocking State of the Environment report - denying Australian voters vital information - was ‘wrecking crew’ behaviour because it warped the proper machinery of government to partisan advantage:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Finally, investigations have now confirmed that the #boatscare on election day itself was the most gross #wreckingcrew stuff - blatantly using public apparatus for attempted partisan electoral advantage:
abc.net.au/news/2022-07-2…
There is now so much to be done to remedy things.
In January this year, Australia plunged to its worst ever score in Transparency International’s global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI): theguardian.com/world/2022/jan…
Then came the follow up report warning that Australia was a ‘country to watch’, a list that also includes Russia, Lebanon and Kazakhstan:
transparency.org/en/blog/cpi-20…
Last year, @AMTiernan wrote a fantastic piece in @GriffithReview warning that the scale of the Morrison government's ‘flagrant abuses of and disregard for traditions and conventions’, meant that this could become ‘normalised as the way politics is done’: griffithreview.com/articles/power…
But the Australian electorate said ‘enough’.
Integrity was one of the top issues for voters in May.
The Australian people voted against ‘wrecking crew politics’ and in favour of integrity and the public good.
This is the standard for the new government and the new parliament.

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More from @David_Ritter

David Ritter Profile picture
Jul 19
Angry about yesterday’s State of the Environment report?
Well, there’s an opportunity to do something practical within the next 24 hours, by lodging an appeal against Woodside being allowed to extend massive fossil gas polluting operations until 2070.🧵
soe.dcceew.gov.au
The background is that WA’s environmental agency (EPA) has recommended that this extension to Woodside’s vast pollution operations be approved - which would mean locking around 50 years’ more of climate-wrecking fossil gas extraction on a massive scale: theguardian.com/australia-news…
The EPA did not assess the impacts from the gas when it is actually burned by end-users.
Yet, if approved, it is estimated that the North West Shelf extension would pump out 4.3 billion tonnes of pollution from climate-wrecking gas over the coming decades: abc.net.au/news/2022-06-3…
Read 7 tweets
David Ritter Profile picture
Jul 4
Hey @AngusTaylorMP you look surprised by the catastrophic flooding events.
Can this be because you have been ignoring the warnings about climate change impacts?
Here's a dozen or so expert warnings about increases in storms and floods that you may have ignored...
🧵: #auspol
The truth is that we have long known, for decades, that for each degree that our atmosphere warms, it can hold 7% more water. This causes heavier rainfall and in turn increased flood risk: int-res.com/articles/cr_oa…
14 years ago, in 2007, the Rudd Government commissioned the Garnaut Climate Change Review, which clearly identified that climate change would lead to “longer dry spells broken by heavier rainfall events” and floods: webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/2019050908…
Read 23 tweets
David Ritter Profile picture
Jun 3
This week's electricity price spikes are largely due to Australia’s continued reliance on dirty, ageing, expensive coal and gas.
This debacle has been years in the making.
The Morrison government failed to do its job and coal and gas vested interests fought change. 🧵#auspol
While the price hikes are in part due to the cold snap increasing demand plus a global energy supply squeeze from the Ukraine war, the main culprit is the fossil fuel industry, which has persistently attempted to wreck Australia’s transition to cleaner, cheaper renewable energy:
Research by @DrAdamLucas found that fossil fuel corporations had ‘constructed a covert network of lobbyists and revolving door appointments which has ensured that industry interests continue to dominate Australia’s energy policy’: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Read 13 tweets
David Ritter Profile picture
May 30
Today, Australia’s largest domestic climate polluter @AGLAustralia abandoned plans to ‘demerge’, to keep burning coal until the 2040s.
Combined with last weekend’s election result, this is a watershed for climate action in Australia.
Let’s unpack what it means 🧵: #ausbiz #auspol
@AGLAustralia is our country’s biggest climate polluter responsible for 10% of our annual domestic greenhouse gas emissions.
What happened today is totally unprecedented.
The restructure of a massive iconic corporation collapsed because of a failure to act on climate change.
To quote my colleague @Glenn_Walker_ AGL’s leadership has presided over the “most bungled and misguided attempt at a corporate restructure in Australian history”.
But it is a fiasco that was a long time in the making…
investordaily.com.au/markets/51424-…
Read 23 tweets
David Ritter Profile picture
May 19
Today I attended the @WoodsideEnergy AGM in Perth to hold the fossil fuel behemoth to account for its destructive gas expansion plans.
The AGM revealed Woodside's astounding arrogance, with execs disregarding expert analysis on its huge climate and financial risk. 🧵 #auspol
For background, despite the IEA, among other experts, stating we need no new gas, coal or oil projects to reach net zero by 2050, Woodside plans to build the most climate-polluting project ever proposed in Australia off the coast of WA - the Burrup Hub.
There is no question the Burrup Hub proposal is in abject opposition to the Paris Climate Agreement and flies in the face of a safer future for Australians and our environment.
climateanalytics.org/media/climatea…
Read 10 tweets
David Ritter Profile picture
May 15
Integrity and climate change are key #Election22 issues because the @ScottMorrisonMP government has failed dismally on both.
But what if they were actually the same issue?
To quote ‘The Wire’, everything is connected.
Here’s a thread…
🧵#auspol #wreckingcrew
There is no doubting the Morrison government’s utter failure to deliver effective climate action.
There’s no credible plan, no credible target, no credible mechanism and a global reputation for obstruction.
Here’s an earlier thread which sets it out:
There is also no doubt about issues with public integrity.
Australia has been singled out by Transparency International for ‘systemic failings in tackling public sector corruption’.
Here’s an earlier thread which sets it out:
Read 37 tweets

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