I think we are getting a clear picture of why the Prime Muppet got the axe from Tourism Australia and New Zealand - rorting didn't cut the mustard in a State with a robust ICAC. Looks like Demark revisited in Canberra.ScottMorrison was sacked as the head of Tourism Australia in 2006 in mysteriouscircumstances which he has always refused to explain but he also left as thehead of Tourism New Zealand in a hurry in 2000 with similar complaints abouthis performance and conduct. Scott Morrison has done a good job ofconcealing who he is from the Australian public, but more and more is startingto be revealed and it paints a disturbing picture and I think this articlehelps put one more piece of the jigsaw puzzle together.
Firstly, tore-cap what I have previously written about Morrison’s sacking at TourismAustralia:
Morrison wassacked by sacked as Managing Director of Tourism Australia in 2006 and he hasalways refused to say why. One thing is for certain, it had to be massivewrongdoing by Morrison. Why? Because Scott Morrison, who was State Director ofthe New South Wales Liberal Party from 2000 to 2004, was sacked by a LiberalParty Minister in the Liberal Party John Howard government and they don’t sackone of their own for a minor reason or even a major reason. Morrison’s sackinghad to be something, at the very least, bordering on criminal and more thanlikely actual criminal conduct. (Click here to read more)
I quoted anarticle from The Saturday Paper which said:It was longspeculated that the sacking was the result of a personality clash betweenMorrison and Bailey or differences over her plans to restructure the agency.
But latelast year, The Saturday Paper uncovered an auditor-general’s reportfrom 2008 examining the handling of three major contracts, which had delivereda scathing assessment of Tourism Australia’s management.
The reportprovided the first indication as to the real reason Morrison was removed.
Thecontracts were worth $184 million, and the auditor focused most on the twobiggest – those with companies M&C Saatchi for global creative services oradvertising campaigns, and Carat for media placement.
The auditreport revealed that information had been kept from the board, procurementguidelines breached and private companies engaged before paperwork was signedand without appropriate value-for-money assessments. (Click here to read the full article)
The2008-2009 Auditor-Generals report on Tourism Australia – (Click here to read the full 2008-2009 Auditor-Generals reporton Tourism Australia)
The2008-2009 Auditor-Generals report on Tourism Australia covers the time ScottMorrison was Managing Director and the $184 million of suspect contracts he wasresponsible for negotiating and says:
At paragraph13 it says: Themajority of Tourism Australia’s marketing activities are delivered through itsmajor global contracts for creative development and media placement services.Digital services, including the tourism online gateway australia.com, are alsodelivered under contract arrangements. These threecontracts consumed approximately thirty-five percent of Tourism Australia’stotal budget between 2004–05 and 2006–07, underlining the importance of Tourism Australia having effective processes for selecting and managing its service providers
At paragraph14 it says: “TourismAustralia’s policies and guidelines provide a sound framework for undertakingcomplex procurements and managing its contracts. However, relevant guidelines were notfollowed when procuring its global creative development and media placementservices and, to a lesser extent, digital services. In particular, procurement plans were not developed and the risks to the successful completion of these procurements were not assessed.”
At paragraph16 it says: Theservices provided under these major contracts, which to date are valued at inexcess of $184 million, are fundamental to the success of Tourism Australia’smarketing initiatives. The contracts accurately reflected the services to beprovided. However, the media placement andcreative development contracts did not include performance information thatwould enable Tourism Australia to evaluate the effectiveness of the servicesprovided even though, as part of a review of the draft contracts, this wasrecommended.
MrUnaccountable Scott Morrison was in full flight at Tourism Australia after asimilar performance at Tourism New Zealand
Scott Morrison atTourism New Zealand
“Mr Morrison, an Australian, helped set up the New ZealandOffice of Tourism and Sport in the 1990s and “He left with a year to go on hiscontract in March 2000.” (Click here to read more)
In June 2000 the NZ Herald reported:
The days of the Office of Tourism and Sport, a power-base offormer Tourism Minister Murray McCully, may be numbered.The Prime Minister has ordered a report from officials on theoffice, which was approved by cabinet, and on a body Mr McCully privately setup, the Tourism and Sport Ministerial Advisory Board.
The State Services Commission and Internal Affairs arelooking at the office after criticisms in the Auditor-General’s report ontourism last week.
And if Labour is part of the next government, it will abolishthe office. Labour’s sports and state services spokesman, Trevor Mallard, saysthe Office of Tourism and Sport was set up last year “to push the politicalinterests of McCully.”“It was designed to provide McCully with the advice McCullywanted and a method of sorting out organisations without McCully’s handsgetting dirty.”
The office is a semi-autonomous body under the Department ofInternal Affairs. The director, Scott Morrison, tenders advice to the Ministerof Tourism and the Minister of Sport, Fitness and Leisure. The office alsooversaw a damning consultants’ report on the Tourism Board’s performance for MrMcCully, without input from the Tourism Board.
Confusion over roles of the various bodies – the TourismBoard, the Office of Tourism and Sport, and the advisory board – contributed tothe breakdown in relationship between the Tourism Board and Mr McCully, theAuditor-General, David Macdonald, said in his report.
Mr Mallard said the way the Office of Tourism and Sportoperated was one of the reasons Mr McCully had got into trouble.And a key reason for that was that it was run by Mr Morrison,an Australian who was seen as Mr McCully’s “hard man.”
Australian standards of public sector behaviour “are lowerthan ours,” said Mr Mallard.
New Zealanders were much more traditional and had aWestminster-type approach. That meant more things on paper, more concern aboutprocess, and being less bombastic.
“My experience with Australian politicians is that rules andethics are not as important to them as they are to New Zealanders.”Mr Morrison said he did not want to respond to Mr Mallard’spersonal comments. “I have no interest in New Zealand politics.” (Click here toread the full article)https://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2019/11/02/scott-morrison-left-tourism-new-zealand-in-similar-circumstances-to-his-sacking-by-tourism-australia-why/
Given theabove and the fact that he still had a year to go on his contract everythingpoints to Scott Morrison being tapped on the shoulder by the New Zealandgovernment and being told to resign or be sacked.
In March 2000 Scott Morrison left Tourism New Zealand andmoved back to Australia where, after a brief stint at KPMG, he was appointed asthe State Director of the New South Wales Liberal Party until 2004. In 2004 he wasparachuted into the role of Managing Director of Tourism Australia in ablatantly political appointment until even the Liberal Party couldn’t handlehis dodgy conduct any further and they sacked him in 2006.
In 2007 Scott Morrison did his secret dirty deal with SamDastyari and stabbed Michael Towke in the back. Mr Towke was the pre-selectedcandidate for the seat of Cook and was in Morrison’s way so false rumours werespread and the state executive of the Liberal Party refused to endorse MrTowke’s preselection after the rumours were published by News Corp. A second ballotwas held, and Scott Morrison won. Mr Towke successfully sued News Corp.
ScottMorrison’s time at Tourism New Zealand, Tourism Australia and his preselectionto parliament all show unanswered allegations of abuse of processes, proceduresand total unaccountability which is exactly how Scott Morrison is running thecountry and performing as Prime Minister.
When Scott Morrison stands in front of the media refusing toanswer questions it should not surprise as he has a long history of refusing tobe accountable but now, he is the Prime Minister he owes it to the wholecountry to answer questions.
