A very ugly stoush is playing out behind the scenes of The Saturday Paper, writes Rosemary Sorensen.
IN THE 21-27 September edition of The Saturday Paper, two experienced and respected journalists responded to the release of a report about public service responsibility for the Robodebt scandal.
The problem with that was that one of those articles, an “opinion” piece by journalist academic Christine Wallace, shocked and angered the writer of the other article.
Rick Morton, whose work on Robodebt in The Saturday Paper has been the epitome of quality journalism and who will publish the whole sordid story in a book next month, wrote about the “sealed section” of Commissioner Catherine Holmes’ Robodebt report, which prevents the naming of the six people – five of them senior public servants – whom she had referred to the so-called National Anti-Corruption Commission, headed by Paul Brereton.
Morton's article lays out the facts with a clarity and understanding that is the result of his attention to detail, the trust placed in him by Robodebt victims and his own ability to unpack obfuscatory excuses (which were the modus operandi of so many public servants and politicians during the torturous weeks of the Royal Commission).
Regarding the recently released Australian Public Service Commission investigation, Morton noted that former department secretaries Kathryn Campbell and Renée Leon were:
‘...named for their seniority and shared 25 serious breaches between them... Leon for misleading the Commonwealth Ombudsman about the legal status of the scheme... and then for taking five-and-a-half months to brief the solicitor-general as recommended in the earlier advice.’
Chris Wallace, who is now a Professor of Politics, Economics and Society at the University of Canberra, wrote specifically about that public service investigation. According to her, being sacked from the public service was the ‘ultimate career price’ for Renée Leon, who was ‘widely admired’ and also defended herself by saying she acted ‘expeditiously’ to end Robodebt.
Since publication, a series of changes appears to have been made to both articles in The Saturday Paper’s online version: the opinion piece was also, apparently, amended before publication (at Morton’s insistence) to make clear the friendship between the writer and the public servant she defended in the article. Morton’s news story has since added details about who – including Wallace – had defended Leon in the wake of the report.
On X, Morton let rip, forthrightly denouncing Wallace for undermining the work and findings of the Australian Public Service Commission about code of conduct breaches by Leon and others, and slamming The Saturday Paper for publishing the opinion piece.
Morton posted:
‘The newspaper for which I work has published a comment piece by Chris Wallace defending her friend of 40 years, former DHS Secretary Renee Leon. I consider the piece to be garbage revisionism, unethical and a betrayal of actual reporting and told the editors as much.’
In another post, Morton noted The Saturday Paper had amended the contents of Wallace’s opinion piece, removing this conclusion:
‘This means every departmental secretary is now vulnerable to career-ending condemnation by the Public Service Commissioner based on the assumption that staff have shared every detail.’
Morton’s indignation could be called righteous; it’s certainly passionate. Soon after the publication of both articles and following his accusations of the ‘garbage revisionism’ in Wallace’s piece that supported Leon’s claim she’d done nothing wrong, he posted a comment to say Wallace had ‘sadly unfollowed’ him on X.
The upshot of that: it can’t be a good thing for a newspaper to have its star reporter call them out so acrimoniously. It is to be hoped that Morton continues his quality work with The Saturday Paper, but that must be uncomfortable.
As for Leon’s so-called career-ending humiliation: she’s currently Vice-Chancellor of Charles Sturt University, who very quickly after the APSC’s findings were released, made a public statement in her support.
Morton, however, in his addenda, got a quote from the National Tertiary Education Union, saying they called for Leon to be sacked:
‘A public university should not be run by someone found to have breached public service rules more than a dozen times through their role in one of the greatest policy disasters in Australian history.’
Meanwhile, in a climate of increasing secrecy and obfuscation, still ongoing is the Inquiry into the so-called National Anti-Corruption’s decision not to follow up on the Royal Commission’s Inquiry into the disastrous robodebt scheme. Nine hundred complaints about that decision led to the announcement back in June that the NACC Inspector, Gail Furness, had started an Inquiry into that decision.
The Inspector said, back then, that the results of that Inquiry would be made public in due course.
Three months on, the Inspector’s office has just released a statement to say that, during those three months:
‘...the National Anti-Corruption Commission provided the Inspector with documents the Inspector had requested. On 3 September 2024, the Inspector asked the National Anti-Corruption Commission to provide submissions on a range of specified matters.’
Those submissions are due on 21 October. Then the Inspector will prepare a report, apparently.
Rosemary Sorensen is an IA columnist, journalist and founder of the Bendigo Writers Festival. You can follow Rosemary on Twitter/X @sorensen_rose.
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