On the one hand, the ongoing saga of Scott Morrison’s secret ministries is a distraction from the many important issues Australia faces. On the other, it shines a light onto the way Scot Morrison operated as leader of the Liberal party and in his role as Prime Minister.

Australia would be best served by dealing with the matter as speedily as possible and paying attention to the inadequacies revealed about the Australian political system.

The advice of the Solicitor General is that Morrison acted within the letter of the law when secretly taking up multiple ministries. At the same time, the advice attacks the former Prime Minister for damaging democracy for doing it. The question that should be asked is why does the law permit it in the first place?

Morrison acted reprehensibly for doing what he did. It showed a horrible lack of transparency, disrespect for his own ministers. Collation partners, and his own party. Even worse is the contempt shown for Australians as a whole. But the worst of it is that it is a symptom of an ongoing shift towards authoritarianism in Australia, which has been creeping along from before Morrison became the leader of the government.

The Australian constitution, law, and political institutions have allowed this. It goes to show there is an inbuilt flexibility, allowing notions of democracy to be curtailed when they prove to be inconvenient. This deserves a hell of a lot more attention than it is getting.

Isolating what Morrison is being accused of carries the danger of burying the context that allowed and encouraged it. Morrison should be held to account. There is no doubt about it. Anthony Albanese is right to be considering an inquiry. It’s just that sight of the deeper issue must not be lost by pretending the only problem is Scott Morrison.

Attention must turn to a frank debate on what is wrong with the political system and finding ways to create the democracy that Australia should have. If this means talking about the constitution, laws, and political institutions to create much more transparency sand revers the creep towards authoritarianism, so be it.

These might be huge questions. This does not mean they should be ignored. Finding the answers will be a drawn-out process. All the more reason now is a good time to begin it.

Morrison’s legacy will then be that he provided a warning that pushed Australia into action. If the opportunity is wasted, Australia is likely to continue down the road towards growing authoritarianism.

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The Novak Djokovic saga has been an embarrassment. The spectacle of a tennis star landing in Australia and the day in day out, will he stay or won’t he stay saga should not have taken place. That it did, told the world that double standards operate in Australia.

The same rule should apply to everyone. It should make no difference when someone has a high media profile or there is a lot of money involved. The handling of Djokovic has proved that this isn’t the case.

Tennis Australia went ahead and prepared for his coming, even though it knew that their key player had failed to meet the conditions to set foot in Australia. They spent money on it. All they thought about is bringing in more money.

Our prime minister should’ve stepped in firmly. He didn’t. It seems that at first, he wanted to make Djokovic an exception, but when public opinion turned away, made pronouncements about no exemptions, and did little. No doubt the rise of infections and the backlash over testing kits for sale at a high price contributed to the discomfort of the Morrison government. Morrison needed good press, and this was an opportunity to blame Victoria’s Andrews government.

Andrews left no doubt how he felt October, when he gave Djokovic the message “get vaccinated or stay home”. He didn’t stick to this, which suggests the extent of the pressure on Djokovic’s side. The reality is that the commonwealth controls who crosses Australia’s borders from overseas, not the states. Australia’s border security allowed Djokovic entry. He was allowed to stay, even after it was revealed he had tested positive on 16 December and admitted that information in his application that he had not travelled overseas to the two weeks before and isolated was wrong. Nor had he met the double vaccination condition.

At the end of the day, the Federal Court put an end tot the legal challenges by denying the appeal against cancelling his visa.

Any of these beaches by anyone not rich and famous would have caused their immediate deportation. Fair minded people would expect everyone to be treated the same.

Tennis Australia, salivating from their expectation of the dollars the world’s number one player would bring, was only too happy to turn a blind eye. Winning would have given Djokovic the number of grand slam wins to get the world record. Tennis Australia’s rising over health considerations puts a considerable amount of the responsibility for what happened on its shoulders.

The big issue is not Djokovic. It is the corrupting influence of big money on elite tennis. Surely, the health of the Australian population should come first.

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The sudden resignation of New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian was always on the cards. Allegations of being associated with corruption have been around for a time, and the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) decision to probe into a breach of public trust when she awarded grants to several community organisations between 2012 and 2018. This brought matters to a head and the rest is now history.

Berejiklian announced her intention to resign as premier and as a member of parliament at the end of last week.

ICAC’s case revolves around a matter of conflict between the public duties on the premier and private interests.

Berejiklian is alleged to have wrongly awarded grants to the Australian Clay Target Association in Wagga Wagga and to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music also in Wagga Wagga, at the time when  boyfriend Daryl Maguire was the local member of parliament.

Photo from the West Australian: Daryl Maguire

In 2018 Maguire resigned in disgrace over this. A wounded Berejiklian has limped on till now.

They are small time cases, compared to other deals awarded. Being the premier with political enemies has made her position more difficult. One shouldn’t discount the effect of the handing of the Covid breakout and her stoushing with Scott Morrison as factors in her fall.

But the risk is that hanging a leading politician as a bad egg could cover that corruption is a much bigger problem than the late premier.

Corruption could accurately be called the other epidemic facing Australia. Recent times have seen an unprecedented wave of politicians caught out and forced to quit. There are a host of allegations over the awarding of government contracts, at both the state and federal levels, and it extends into local politics.

Something is seriously wrong.

This is why so many pushed for an ICAC in New South Wales, and there is a push for a federal ICAC.

Any investigation worth its salt, must take on the relationship between big business and government. Those running the corporations don’t make donations and spend big money on lobbyists easily. They expect a return for the investment. If this is ignored, any investigation findings will be used as a whitewash or ignored, if they prove to be awkward.

Corruption is about much more than awarding certain contracts and pocketing money dishonestly. It is founded on an outlook that elevates personal gain above all else. Corrupt behaviour can also take on softer forms. Abuse of the perks of office, paving the way for a career change after politics, and ignoring wrongs are some examples.

Once these are endemic it’s a slippery path downwards.

Not long ago the Royal Commission into the banks reported evidence based widespread misbehaviour. The political elite swept it under the carpet and nothing has been done. The leaked Panama papers revealed how widespread corruption and tax evasion is in Australia. Nothing was done about this either. We have just had the scandals over the giving of money without proper process to gas companies. Business goes on as usual.

Nothing is going to change, unless the people of Australia make it happen.

The fall of Gladys Berejiklian may be a positive turn of events, although we must never lose sight of the bigger scandal.

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