Rachelle Miller:
“ALWAYS, the Minister had the final call. He was the one who decided which action should be taken, and directed us.”
Ouch. Hate to be going into a public hearing with that on the record. #RobodebtRC#AlanTudge
That kinda rebuffes Tudge’s potential of blaming staff, as we saw with other big heads in the game.
If he says “I relied on my team” or similar, they can say, well your staff said it was all up to you. You made all the decisions and had the final call.
“Always”
He would prob do the usual gutless thing and deny and blame everyone else. But let’s see how he goes up against the Commissioner.
I do also wonder, if this practise of fobbing off “left wing media” & being concentrated only on “friendly media” was carried by Tudge into all of his roles as Minister.
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#RobodebtRC PORTER DIARY ENTRY FARCE. The former attorney general’s solicitor Arthur Moses makes excuses for only providing partial information, such as metadata, instead of a complete set of diary entries as requested by the commission. 🤐
Porter’s hearing resumes…🕒
Moses said he had a “complaint” made about a government official who provided Porter with wrong information, surrounding the diary entries. This is a joke seriously.
Greggery will press on with what he can for now, goes to a media interview Porter made, brings up the transcript
They are Q’ing Porter on his interview answers, where he is answering on the onus on proof being on welfare recipients.
Commissioner comes in, asking how with his legal qualifications, he didn’t realise anything wrong with this onus
#RoboDebtRC Christian Porter off to a messy start with missing Diary entries which he assures he will try & make available after lunch.
Takes first question from Greggery KC:
“I… I… I don’t know… I don’t recall…”
Greggery lays out emails with coalition policies & election commitments, asking him to confirm what some of the details mean (ie. abbreviations) - Porter uncertain.
Evidence shows $2b in budget savings proposed as an election commitment for money made from Robodebt.
(2016)
Porter now being asked about the time he stepped in to cover Tudge who was holidaying at a time when the media started to pick up steam on the illegalities & tragedies of Robodebt
(Dec 2016)
For context, seems Tudge did a runner at the time, (this just before Tudge spoke to PM)
#RobodebtRC Tudge takes a deep breath, as resumes his evidence.
“I can’t recall”
Back where he left off.
Tudge being questioned on suicides again.
Greggery: “One (suicide) would be enough wouldn’t it?”
Tudge waffles about budget savings… and then..
Says we would “never know” the real reasons of the suicide.
Ie. Refuses to accept its a suicide related to his illegal scheme
I believe they are discussing Jenny Miller’s son, Rhys
Tudge saying he can’t recall …session being muted (possibly for sensitive material)
Greggery suggesting he only responded when there was an “interview to be dealt with”
& was given kick up the ass by Jenny Macklin (Labor)
#RobodebtRC Alan Tudge pressed on why he emphasised Fraud in the media when he knew it related to just 0.01% of cases.
After trying his best not to answer, concedes he “could have gone further” to point out the facts. [1/2]
#RobodebtRC Greggery KC dives deeper asking why it was never mentioned that in fact 99.9% of cases he spoke of, did not relate to Fraud, & suggests to Tudge it was “Easy to do”.
Tudge concedes, but denies it was all part of a big “strategy” [2/2]
Sorry I meant 0.1%
(Not that it makes it much better for Mr Smudge)
#RobodebtRC Tudge Arrogance Off The Charts as Commissioner Holmes pounds the former Health Services minister for a clear failure to give a stuff at all about victims of this Robodebt Scam, casting them all as Fraudsters, without any evidence.
Commissioner continues to dive in to call him out on multiple matters… I’m only just catching up after being away for a period.
He’s now saying Robodebt was “already underway” before he became DHS Minister, waffling, getting draining
Tudge confirms that the Data matching system under the LNP had “significant changes” to its previous design
Now Greggery brings up docs about his strategy in dealing with “adverse media” reports.
Tudge slows down. Looking, searching through documents, seems lost 🙈