{"id":13144,"date":"2021-09-27T07:02:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-27T07:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=13144"},"modified":"2021-09-27T07:02:04","modified_gmt":"2021-09-27T07:02:04","slug":"pms-coag-bill-a-slippery-slope-to-increased-executive-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/09\/27\/pms-coag-bill-a-slippery-slope-to-increased-executive-power\/","title":{"rendered":"PM\u2019s COAG bill a slippery slope to increased executive power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Greens say evidence presented at today\u2019s inquiry into the government\u2019s COAG Legislation Amendment Bill shows just how far the PM has strayed from legal, constitutional and democratic norms.<br \/>\n<strong>Greens deputy leader and spokesperson on democracy Senator Larissa Waters said:<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cAfter today\u2019s hearing no one can be left in any doubt about just how anti-democratic and dangerous the government&#8217;s attempt to shield National Cabinet from scrutiny really is.<br \/>\n\u201cAll the expert witnesses agree that this Bill would undermine the rule of law, increase secrecy, erode accountability and open the door to increased executive powers. That should be something that worries all Australians.<br \/>\n\u201cThe Morrison Government is the most secretive government in history. They eagerly relied on cabinet secrecy to hide information about Covid decisions, the \u2018gas-led recovery\u2019 and the women\u2019s safety taskforce.<br \/>\n\u201cThis Bill is a blatant attempt to prevent proper scrutiny of the government\u2019s abysmal vaccination rollout, its shambles of a national quarantine program, and its pandering to fossil fuel donors.<br \/>\n\u201cThe government has offered no compelling policy rationale for a Bill that offers complete, unfettered secrecy to a wide range of decisions affecting us all. It is impossible to reconcile this Bill with the PM\u2019s statements on the international stage about Australia\u2019s commitment to open government.<br \/>\n\u201cAs the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission said today, this Bill gets the balance wrong. Trust in government is vital, particularly in emergency situations, yet this government seems determined to undermine public trust at every turn.<br \/>\n\u201cThe PM continues to do all he can to duck transparency and accountability. His war on transparency and accountability has to end.<br \/>\n&#8220;The Greens will be voting against this Bill and we urge Labor to join us.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Greens say evidence presented at today\u2019s inquiry into the government\u2019s COAG Legislation Amendment Bill shows just how far the PM has strayed from legal, constitutional and democratic norms. Greens deputy leader and spokesperson on democracy Senator Larissa Waters said: \u201cAfter today\u2019s hearing no one can be left in any doubt about just how anti-democratic &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/09\/27\/pms-coag-bill-a-slippery-slope-to-increased-executive-power\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;PM\u2019s COAG bill a slippery slope to increased executive power&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}