Aussie pollies lack Dutch courage
In a directly parallel example of fraud by a government on its people, the Dutch government has resigned due to a scandal over benefits, but the Australian government has not.
The Dutch tax organisation wrongly accused more than 20,000 families of fraud over child benefits.
The government resigned a month before parliament was due to break up ahead of general elections due on 17 March 2021. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s cabinet will act in caretaker mode until a new coalition is formed.
“The government was not up to standard throughout this whole affair,” Rutte said at a media conference. “Mistakes were made at every level of the state, with the result that terrible injustice was done to thousands of parents.”
For comparison, under Australia’s Robodebt scandal, there were 470,000 wrongly-issued debts and the government was forced to repay $1.2 billion. Absolutely no-one has resigned: not the PM, not the Minister in charge, not the head bureaucrat, not even a lowly scapegoat.