Was it the lasting legacy of the coalition government?

Welcome back to Your. This week, online commentators and letter writers hit their keyboards to express their shock and anger at the findings of the Robo Debt Royal Commission’s report.

Politicians vs. Civil Servants: Who Was Responsible for Robo-Debt?

• Political and international editor Peter Hartcher wrote that the coalition had taken action at every parliamentary Question Time for months to prevent questions about robo-debt being raised in the House of Representatives. Now we know why.

maggie Now this certainly shows that Scott Morrison was the worst MP, Minister, Treasurer and Prime Minister in the history of the Federation. My dream: Morrison finally resigns from Parliament and Cook’s seat becomes Labor for many years.

Coleridge Of course, the politicians involved should be held accountable for this moral debacle. But it is just as important now that the corresponding senior officials are held accountable and not shielded. They bear at least the same responsibility as the politicians.

aussiebroon And Morrison claims to believe in “Christian values.” Obviously, honesty, compassion, and consideration are not values ​​he espouses.

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Baza Beeza Australia was perilously close to becoming a nation of sheep ruled by a ruling class of wolves.

MegaKay Another aspect of this whole depraved saga is how (arguably) the most vocal Christian Prime Minister we have ever had managed to justify this vicious and tyrannical attack on the most vulnerable members of our society with the central message of the book he reveres .

mick Gosh, wouldn’t it have been nice if the Coalition had taken care of the $30 billion overpaid to their corporate peers at JobKeeper? I think it’s a lot easier to bully and intimidate defenseless people – most of whom wouldn’t vote for the coalition anyway.

enough is enough For the last time. The officials caused this mess. Nothing to do with coalition ministers.

Does the Coalition believe that “compassion is for losers”?

• Royal Commissioner Catherine Holmes made it clear in her report on robo-debt that she has examined the soul of recent coalition governments and found that when it comes to compassion for the citizens who need it most, special author Tony Wright explained.

supernova Coalition? Soul? Oxymoron.

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nativebee Robo-debt was the gospel of prosperity on a grand scale. Let’s never forget the damage done by Morrison et al. inflicted on the weakest. We should all be ashamed.

David Jackson Watching this horrific saga, it seems to me that the liberals have singled out a large group of vulnerable people, unable to defend themselves and dependent on government services, and put a target on their backs . Then they took everything into their armory and went in search of them. They suspended the concept of innocence until proven guilty, sent letters to the group demanding the money in a short time, and then sent the debt collectors against those who would neither defend themselves nor pay. And it wasn’t just Morrison, it was a bunch of MPs. Truly despicable.

SteveP Liberals only feel sorry for the rich and for the corporations. There is nothing for anyone else. It’s all about money, not heart.

Phil You know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Gavin Gatenby In the worldview of these people, compassion is for the losers.

teddee We can only hope that the robo-debt atrocity will be the final nail in the coffin of the neoliberal nightmare we have all lived through for the last 40 years. It’s time to build genuine caring for others into all government policies.

Is Centrelink a willfully incompetent organization?

• While robo-debt may have disappeared, shockingly, many of the features and conditions that characterized the crude and cruel scheme remain to this day, explained Katherine Boyle, attorney and executive director of the Welfare Rights Center NSW.

LH I have been involved with Centrelink at various stages of my life. Studies, unemployment, illness and disability. I have never seen such a systematically disorganized and willfully incompetent organization.

JanRL Centrelink letters traumatized my European in-laws because their tone was mostly threatening. We concluded that the organization assumes that all pensioners and welfare recipients are scammers and scammers who need to be caught. Totally insulting.

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Richard H It’s time for universal basic income, and then we can end Centrelink and excessive forms and process-driven outcomes.

trevor Thank you to the brave souls who testified before the Royal Commission, to the Commissioner and her staff, to the good people in the civil service who have constantly tried to voice concerns. Those who invented this lazy process did so because they knew that it is easy to blame and stigmatize vulnerable people in our society and that they work politically.

Were robo-debt victims used as ‘food for choice’?

• Our politicians have become very adept at holding their predecessors to account. But that hasn’t improved standards of political behavior, as robo-debt has shown, wrote business editor Ross Gittins.

Ryszard Linkiewicz, Caringbah South The coalition’s behavior is symbolic of the sociopathic attitudes bred by four decades of economic rationalism. The values ​​of the ruling class permeate the entire nation, and the robo-debt tragedy is just a symptom of it.

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Bob Monaghan, North Richmond Why are we so shocked and angry reading the report on robo debt? When has the coalition government ever looked after the disadvantaged and oppressed of our society? The four despicable former members who have since been named are fairly typical of the previous government. These people were campaign material that could be used and abused in favor of the government. I am ashamed that this could happen in our once proud country.

Jeffr A very dark time for Australians. ScoMo’s enduring legacy.

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