Morrison should be ’embarrassed’ over robodebt: Shorten
Poppy Johnston and Andrew Brown |
Government services minister Bill Shorten says Scott Morrison should be embarrassed by the robodebt royal commission but it is up to the former prime minister to decide if he should quit parliament.
Mr Morrison is facing fresh calls for his resignation based on his role in the failed debt recovery scheme as uncovered by a royal commission into the government program.
It found former coalition ministers, including Mr Morrison, dismissed or ignored concerns about the legality of the scheme.
Mr Morrison has rejected suggestions of wrongdoing or that he misled cabinet.
Mr Shorten told ABC radio on Monday it was up to Mr Morrison to stay and “protest his innocence” if he wished.
“That’s up to him, but anyone who reads the royal commission is going to form a different view about Mr Morrison’s proposed timetable for staying in parliament,” the minister said.
Mr Shorten said any “self-respecting politician” would be “embarrassed, humiliated” by the assessments made in the final report.
“He must live in a separate world to the rest of us,” he added.
Meanwhile, Liberal backbencher Bridget Archer has told Nine newspapers she was disappointed by Mr Morrison’s response to the report’s findings.
“He was very quick to reject the findings of the royal commission rather than seek to engage constructively with its findings and find ways to reform the system to ensure this doesn’t ever happen again,” she said.
“I would like to see self-reflection from the people involved in creating this scheme because of the harm and damage it has caused to people and the continued erosion of trust in public institutions it has created.”
The Tasmanian MP said it was difficult for a former prime minister to remain in parliament.
“This, alongside other things, do make it difficult for the party to draw a line under the past and move forward,” she said.
Nationals leader David Littleproud said Mr Morrison, who represents the Sydney seat of Cook, needed to decide whether he was still set on serving in federal parliament.
“It’s a matter for Mr Morrison to determine whether he’s still got the heart to continue on,” Mr Littleproud told Sky News on Monday.
“And if he hasn’t, then he should get out of the road, because the people of Cook deserve someone that has the fire in the belly to stand up and to represent them in Canberra.
“He’s paid the ultimate price in losing his job as the prime minister of this country.”
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the Liberal Party was not in a position to direct Mr Morrison to “say or do anything”.
“What he decides to do with his future is a matter for him,” he told ABC radio.
The senator said the party was taking the findings of the commission seriously and would support any sensible changes to prevent it from happening again.
The report into the scheme included a sealed section that recommended further investigation and action against several unnamed individuals.
Federal police and the National Anti-Corruption Commission are considering the evidence.
The commission declined to say how many people had been referred to it, but confirmed to AAP on Monday the referrals would be “assessed in accordance with the commission’s procedures”.
Mr Shorten said he understood the undisclosed chapter would be made public once investigations were completed.
AAP
