Rick Morton

6 days ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Rick Morton

Professor Genevieve Bell had been the vice-chancellor of the Australian National University for just 17 days when a senior adviser in the executive emailed the management consulting firm Nous with an expression of interest for “strategic research analysis”. New documents show that service would turn into a $3 million gig aimed at cutting costs amid a financial crisis many within the university feel has been overstated.

1 week ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Rick Morton

The incidence of Australians forced to fight the National Disability Insurance Scheme for support funding has reached levels not seen since the end of the Coalition government. Their treatment has left independent reviewers of the appeals process “appalled”.

2 weeks ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Rick Morton

The Bureau of Meteorology drew up plans to charge for access to critical climate data that has already been paid for by government funding, despite serious concerns raised by its own scientists and staff. A decision had been made by senior management, led by outgoing chief executive Dr Andrew Johnson and his long-time lieutenant and bureau group executive business solutions Dr Peter Stone, to essentially paywall public data traditionally made available via the Climate Data Online tool.

3 weeks ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Rick Morton

A full parliamentary term after promising to end income control, the “suffocating” and “humiliating” policy continues for almost 30,000 people – despite being overwhelmingly rejected in unpublished submissions to the latest consultation over the future of the scheme.

1 month ago | thesaturdaypaper.com.au | Rick Morton

When the New South Wales government’s Ministry of Health ordered letters be sent to every working doctor in the state threatening them with potential professional standards investigations if they went on strike, it was enough to push the anaesthetics department at one hospital over the line. Previously undecided, they were ready to walk out for better pay and conditions. “There is no ‘right’ to take industrial action when orders against industrial action have been issued.