Uncategorized
- March 28, 2007
Probing government inquiries
The inquiry that cleared former Aged Care minister Santo Santoro of any wrongdoing in the allocation of federally funded nursing home beds to a friend must have probed deeply and thoroughly, leaving no stone unturned in the few days it took. Amazing how fast the government and public service can move when they want to clear their own name.
The inquiry found Senator Santoro did not influence a departmental decision to give Russell Egan Jr, a Brisbane Liberal branch chairman, 94 taxpayer-funded bed licences. The new minister, Christopher Pyne, said:
“There is no evidence that’s been deduced of any wrongdoing on behalf of the former minister and this report exonerates him entirely,”
Mr Pyne said, and then went on to add:
“As far as I’m concerned, and the Government is concerned, we draw the line under this controversy, and we can now get back on with the business of governing for ageing Australians.”
Somehow, I don’t think that washes, Christopher. About as convincing as Santo Santoro’s original claims of “I forgot to declare this transaction” and then “And when I remembered, I sold the shares and donated the profits to charity” without mentioning that the “charity” was a right wing lobby group connected with his mate who put him onto the shares in the first place, and that in fact there were 70 odd share transactions he had forgotten about.
One thing I’m curious to know is how the inquiry managed to establish the facts without actually talking to the key players, Santoro and Egan. Sounds like a bunch of public servants asking each other if they did anything wrong. Another one of those, “don’t ask, don’t tell” situations where unpleasant facts are kept away from the Minister so he can quite nicely deny any knowledge …and in the public service ministers don’t actually need to give the bureaucrats explicit instructions - the ones who succeed are well attuned to their minister’s wishes and “know” what they want without actually having to be told.
