Politicians love leaving a legacy.
asserted
Politicians → love → legacy
Preferably something grand enough to distract from everything else they stuffed up.
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they → distract → everything
Australians would settle for an aged care system that looks after the elderly and an energy project that bears some passing resemblance to its original price tag.
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that → settle → tag
Two unfolding debacles that tell us plenty about the distance between ambitions and political reality.
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that → unfold → ambitions
The dysfunctional aged care system is fast becoming Labor’s version of Robodebt.
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system → become → Robodebt
Meanwhile, the increasingly expensive monument to Malcolm Turnbull’s opinion of himself, Snowy Hydro 2.0, is already a financial sinkhole, and it’s getting worse.
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it → get → himself
And you thought Albo’s ill-considered voice referendum campaign (the mismanagement of which stoked divisions in our community rather than healed them) was his abiding legacy fail.
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mismanagement → think → them
The ongoing problems attached to the automated aged care system and Snowy Hydro’s strain on the nation’s finances are substantive policy challenges.
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problems → attach → finances
One has vulnerable Australians fighting a computer for the care they need.
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they → have → care
The other has taxpayers watching billions disappear into a mountain.
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billions → have → mountain
The common thread is a political class far more accomplished at unveiling its achievements than actually delivering on them.
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thread → accomplish → them
The dysfunctional aged care system is fast becoming the Albanese government's version of Robodebt.
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system → become → Robodebt
Pictured is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
The latest projections suggest that Snowy Hydro 2.0 could reach $25billion
The party that quite rightly condemned Robodebt now has an automated decision-making scandal of its own.
uncertain
that → picture → own
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has delivered a damning assessment of the algorithm used to allocate funding to older Australians needing support at home.
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Ombudsman → deliver → home
His findings go to fairness, transparency and the extraordinary difficulty of correcting decisions when the computer gets it wrong.
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it → go → decisions
These are people trying to wash, dress, eat and remain safely in their own homes.
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These → try → homes
Getting their assessments wrong can turn an already difficult existence into a daily ordeal.
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assessments → get → ordeal
Labor understood the dangers of putting vulnerable people at the mercy of automated bureaucracy when Coalition ministers were responsible.
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ministers → understand → bureaucracy
In fact it understood them so thoroughly it commissioned a royal commission.
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it → understand → commission
Yet the Ombudsman has now identified failures to apply transparency lessons from that very inquiry to the aged care system.
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Ombudsman → identify → system
Apparently Labor thought the Robodebt royal commission was compulsory viewing for its opponents and optional reading for its own administration to learn from.
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administration → think → opponents
Robodebt pursued supposed welfare debts, the automated aged care system determines access to care.
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system → pursue → care
Australians would settle for an aged care system that looks after the elderly and an energy project that bears some passing resemblance to its original price tag, PVO (pictured) writes
Labor cannot blame former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured with his wife Lucy) for the Snowy 2.0 costing debacle
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Labor → settle → debacle
The underlying administrative arrogance is horribly familiar.
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arrogance → underlie → ?
The computer delivers its verdict and the vulnerable person faces the struggle of challenging it.
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person → deliver → it
Labor points to a new escalation pathway allowing human review (to be put in place come January), alongside an independent review reporting sometime next year.
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Labor → point → review
How reassuring, unless you’re facing difficulties right now.
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you → face → difficulties
Frail Australians can’t reschedule their deterioration to fit Labor’s slow moving timetable.
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Australians → reschedule → timetable
Then there is Snowy 2.0, the scheme Turnbull promoted with the enthusiasm of a man already imagining the plaque unveiled at its opening.
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Turnbull → be → opening
He banged on about it endlessly: Vision, nation building, Malcolm thinking bigger than everybody else.
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Malcolm → bang → everybody
The original headline estimate was about $2billion, if you can believe that.
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you → believe → that
The latest projections suggest it could reach $25billion, and we’ll be waiting another three years for it to be fully operational.
uncertain
it → suggest → 25billion
What was sold as a triumph of foresight increasingly resembles a white elephant with an unlimited taxpayer funded living allowance.
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sold → sell → allowance
Snowy’s chief executive has acknowledged major mistakes and the need for substantial additional government support to dig the project out of its own financial sinkhole.
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executive → acknowledge → sinkhole
Fresh reporting reveals the cost of walking away remains unknown.
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cost → reveal → ?
We are therefore being told that we must keep going, potentially throwing good money behind bad.
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we → tell → bad
Money already spent doesn’t, by itself, justify the next billion.
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Money → spend → billion
Otherwise every financial disaster becomes an argument for making it even bigger.
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it → become → ?
Snowy and the government insist the project retains substantial benefits.
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project → insist → benefits
They should publish a convincing assessment of the remaining costs, risks and alternatives, and let taxpayers examine the claims.
uncertain
taxpayers → publish → claims
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
