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Senate finds Scrafton credible, Government dismisses result as "political"
After the second truth-overboard inquiry found Scrafton credible, the Government by means of George Brandis has predictably dismissed it with one of its standard epithets - that the results politically motivated.
The irony in this claim is clearly lost on the Govenment. Obviously if the conclusions of the majority of the Senate can be dismissed that way, then so can the conclusions of its minority. If the majority decision lacks legitimacy because of political motivation, then equally Brandis' claims that the inquiry was political are equally easily dismissed as being political.
A Senate inquiry is an imperfect mechanism, but when the Govenment controls the lower house and and is thus in a position to prevent any judicial inquiry, then the Senate inquiry is the best alternative we have - at least until the Government takes control of the Senate in July, from which time there will be no options for inquiries into Government actions at all. The reason Senate inquiries occur is because the Government - out of political motivation - refuses to allow a more independent, judicial inquiry, to take place.
By impugning the inquiry as political, the Government acts as the proverbial stone-throwing resident of a glass house.
The Government has an easy way to avoid a Senate inquiry - by instigating a judicial inquiry into the many allegations of corrupt conduct over the past three years. But such an inquiry would leave them without the option of dismissing the results as politically motivated. On the other hand, if the conclusions of Senate inquiries would not occur without political bias, as the Government alleges, they should relish the opportunity for an objective inquiry that would presumably, in their opinion, clear them.
The fact that they will not establish such an inquiry tells us all we need to know about their true opinion of the Senate inquiry results - that they believe the factual validity of the conclusions of the inquiry, and cannot afford to allow an inquiry to take place that would not be able to be impugned as political.