Back in 2020, as the ‘Sports Rorts’ affair was making life difficult for the Morrison Government, the PM sought advice from then Attorney-General Christian Porter. When asking to see it, Rex Patrick was told it couldn’t be found. What’s the scam?
The scam is that when Porter left office, said advice somehow disappeared. Four years and $400,000 in legal fees later, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) have now found the document.
As the Sports Rorts scandal rolled out in early 2020, then Prime Minister Scott Morrison sought advice from then Attorney-General Christian Porter on whether Sports Minister Bridget ‘coloured-coded-spread-sheets’ McKenzie was legally permitted to override Sports Australia picks for funding grants.
It’s well known that if a government wants legal advice, it goes to the Solicitor-General. If it wants a political fix, it goes to the Attorney-General.
So, it’s unsurprising that I requested Porter’s advice under FOI. I expected the knockback, though I didn’t expect a four-year delay in the Information Commissioner in dealing with my appeal.
The dog ate my Cabinet document: Christian Porter’s vanishing rorts advice
That ultimately led to what is colloquially known as “the shredder case” – and resulted in a humiliating defeat for the current Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus as he unsuccessfully appealed a judgement of Justice Charlesworth’s that made it clear that it’s unlawful for an outgoing minister to shred documents.
In 2021, when I was advised that Michaela Cash, Christian Porter’s replacement, didn’t have the Porter letter, I thought, “That’s OK; Porter had claimed it was a Cabinet document – so the Cabinet Office must have it.”
I requested the Porter letter from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. But they didn’t have the super-sensitive document. It was nowhere to be seen.
After Mark Dreyfus spent $400,000 of taxpayers’ money in legal fees, the PM&C wrote to me last week to say they have now found the document after “urgent steps were taken to reactivate the email inbox of a former employee of the Department.” They’ve been in possession of the document all this time.
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Open in new tab If only the team at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet had done their job back in 2021, there wouldn’t have been a prolonged transparency fight with the Information Commissioner, a Federal Court case, a full Federal Court case and $400,000 of your money spent.
Now that they’ve found it, however, we have yet to see if they’ll let us see it…
Rex Patrick v Mark Dreyfus court battle a big win for political integrity
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.