From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 23 July

Some people are so ridiculous, one has to wonder how they manage to clamber from their beds and stumble through the day without doing themselves a serious mischief.

ENGLISH tourist, Ivan Danailov Dimitrov, was filmed defacing a brick in a wall of Rome’s 2000-year-old Colosseum.

Consequentially identified from a social media posting, a remorseful Mr Dimitrov has written a grovelling letter of apology to the mayor of Rome. Facing both a fine and a jail sentence, he has accept all responsibility and promises he will make-up for his mistake. Exactly how he plans to curry favour, he does not say. You have to wonder: sorry for the crime, or sorry he was caught.

Incredulously, Mr Dimitrov contends he was unaware the ruins were so ancient! It is difficult to imagine what he made of the Colosseum. Perhaps he thought it was an abandoned set left from Rome’s 1959 film version of Ben-Hur!

Hopefully, this reaction will encourage him to abandon his anti-social behaviour. What an unmitigated twit!

The Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme findings, contained in the report handed down by The Honourable Catherine Holmes, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland, are cause for serious and immediate partisan political evaluation.

The Commissioner’s unequivocal condemnation of the Liberal and National Party’s implementation of the illegal Robodebt collection strategy is a permanent Macbethian spot on our democracy. The magnitude of the gross offending is not for political point-scoring. The transgressions screech for more-caring government and a fearless public service.

Robodebt illegality notwithstanding, of equal matter is the measured decision to wilfully target the nation’s most vulnerable; those for whom a legal defence is impossible against the government’s terrifying, uncaring juggernaut.

Distressingly, the report patently exposes the polluted political zeitgeist of the nation’s discourse; Machiavellian administrative practices; acquiescent public service methodology; an ugly, repugnant, dark, underbelly of scorn for the less fortunate; and a technique calculated to intimidate.

The politicisation of politics – the determination to stay in power, regardless, has led our nation down an odious, solipsistic route of blatant hard-heartedness, in this instance with fatal consequences.

The report’s sealed section has recommended, “The referral of individuals for civil action or criminal prosecution”. May the punishment fit the crime.

Commissioner Holmes’ said, “Anti-welfare rhetoric is easy populism, useful for campaign purposes. It is not recent, nor is it confined to one side of politics, as some of the quoted material in this report demonstrates.

“It may be that the evidence in this Royal Commission has gone some way to changing public perceptions. But largely, those attitudes are set by politicians, who need to abandon for good (in every sense) the narrative of taxpayer versus welfare recipient.”

Chillingly, Commissioner Holmes wrote in the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme report’s preface, “Truly dismaying was the revelation of dishonesty and collusion to prevent the Scheme’s lack of legal foundation coming to light. Equally disheartening was the ineffectiveness of what one might consider institutional checks and balances – the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office, the Office of Legal Services Coordination, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal – in presenting any hindrance to the Scheme’s continuance.”

The determination of incumbent governments to render impotent any possible hinderance to their political manifesto is ominous. Voters have grounds to be truly alarmed.

Former Prime Minster Scott Morrison’s strident contradicting of the report and his participation in the illegal process is disappointing, and counterproductive.

Then again, to quote Mandy Rice-Davies, “Well he would, wouldn’t he!”

Roland can be heard with Brett MacDonald on 3BA on Mondays at 10.45am and contacted via [email protected].