When Prime Minister Albanese refused to release his 2022 diary to Rex Patrick and the AFR, he was just being silly. In 2016, Mark Dreyfus fought and won a Full Federal Court battle to access then Attorney General George Brandis’ diary. What’s the scam?
The scam is how Albanese stubbornly resisted handing over his diary until October 2023, when his taxpayer-funded lawyers surrendered on his behalf, yet in opposition, demanded the same transparency.
At about the same time, Senator Barbara Pocock queried the Prime Minister’s Department on how much money they had spent on the doomed fight. His top bureaucrats responded, saying that, at that point in time, the costs were $42,000 but that “there were outstanding invoices.”
Senator Lambie’s Question (Source: Senate)
Senator Jacqui Lambie recently asked how much the lawyers first estimated the legal costs would be and for an update on what were the final costs.
In a further politically dumb move, Albanese didn’t answer Lambie’s cost estimate question and simply referred her back to the incomplete answer previously given to Senator Pocock.
Lambie intends to take this up with his department at Senate Estimates in November, MWM understands.
Other recent FOI cases have involved some astonishing cost blowouts as the Labor Government shovels cash to highly paid external lawyers in efforts to prevent or at least delay the release of information to the public.
So, it’s a pretty sure bet that the final cost of Albanese’s diary secrecy will be quite a bit higher than the figure released so far.
Meanwhile, it’s secrecy on top of secrecy, something the Prime Minister seems to be quite comfortable with.
Anthony Albanese’s diary. Albo works long hours, but who does he meet with?
Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and earlier a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader, Rex is running for the Senate on the Lambie Network ticket next year - www.transparencywarrior.com.au.