Hey mhaze,

Trumps not perfect by any means, he has his ego, maybe a bit of arrogance; general flaws.
He's got his work cut out for him to drain the DC swamp properly, that's for sure, and an army of corrupt politicians and career bureaucrats with plenty more experience in government will pull every trick in the book to stop him.
I hope he succeeds, I'm sure he's learned a few things about how things really work since last time around.
You couldn't get much worse than the other team.

I wonder whether he will get manipulated into a war with 'Chaina' though.
He never started any wars in office last time, but he did get manipulated by the warmonger advisers like Pompeo and Bolton he surrounded himself with.
Dems are trying to blame him for the vaccine rollout now, I heard.
- Even though they supported it more than anyone.

- And yes, I'm sorry I went off topic, not really much to do with Scomo and his secret expanded portfolio.

Hi Paul,

Quite a few political commentators are asking if it's really
possible that our former PM Scott Morrison could
undermine the principals of responsible government,
mislead the public, treat his colleagues with
contempt and "trash democracy" and face no sanctions?

According to Chris Uhlmann channel 9's political editor,
in the absence of a breach of law - there appears no
real reasons for Scott Morrison to leave Parliament.

No law was broken. Certainly convention was thrashed.
But as I stated earlier - the only people to impose
severe political consequences on our former PM are
his constituents and his political party - which at
present seems to be standing by him. We have to wait and
see what the future will bring.

Therefore the only way of closing the loophole that created
this mess appears to be the only likely concrete outcome
that needs to be done. As I stated in my earlier post -
Parliament should amend legislation (Ministers of State Act)
to require the Governor General to publish in the Gazette
every appointment of a minister, every change to portfolios
held by a minister, any change to which government departments
are responsible and every change to which a minister is
responsible.

If this does not happen then further erosion of trust and
confidence in government will continue.

Hi Foxy,

Its easy for the unscrupulous coward to hide behind the law; "It was all perfectly legal". Taken to its nth degree, Hitler could claim everything he done was "legal", after all he made the laws.

A country can be run according to the rule of law or it can be run according to the rule of men. In the former "the people (including, one should add, the government) should be ruled by the law and obey it" while in the latter the law is whatever the rulers decree it to be as suits the circumstances.

In the main, democracy is a system under the rule of law. Laws are set and followed. What is not illegal is legal. People cannot be punished for retrospectively breaking some new law.

Of course, we have some OLOers who have long since adhered to regimes where the rule of man is the norm ie where the law is what the rulers decide it to be and punishment for doing what was previously legal but now determined to be illegal, is accepted, even lauded. Those people now call for Morrison to be punished for doing legal things that the mob now determines is unacceptable.

Its a bad and unhappy precedent for a once free peoples. We've seen it in the woke mobs who seek to cancel others for holding views a decade ago that are now determined to be unacceptable. It is ultimately lawless.

In the past, the defeat of a political opponent in elections was considered sufficient sanction for the loser. But now the baying mob wants more. The pound of flesh is no longer enough. Its a recipe for disaster. These people always operate as though they'll never be subject to the same standards once they are defeated in some future election.

But they will eventually be out of power and will, then, look askant when the rules they invented are applied to them also.

Democracy survives and thrives on the basis of
transparency and clear lines of responsibility.
Transparency is a fundamental component of
democratic government. It promotes accountability
and provides information for citizens about what
the government is doing.

Is it really possible that Scott Morrison could undermine
the principal's of responsible government, mislead the
public, treat his colleagues with contempt, and face
no sanctions?

Voters and his political party will decide his political future.
The current government shall hopefully close the loophole that
created this mess.

" It promotes accountability
and provides information for citizens about what
the government is doing."

Were the people uninformed about what the government was doing due to the dual ministers? Was the one and only decision made by deputy minister Morrison unknown to the people - as I recall the decision was widely known and commented on.

As I said, some want to punish a defeated foe for doing something that was perfectly legal at the time and still is. The authoritarian impulse always rises to the surface among those some.