Rick Morton

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

I have been taking extra-large gulps from the industrial vat of mouthwash in the bathroom. The idea came to me in a moment of domestic clarity – it won’t be finished before I go. Teeth brushed, I clocked the drum of Listerine and knew it couldn’t come with me. Too big. Better take bigger sips, I thought. I am not dying – though my high-school friend’s mum, who retrained as a lawyer late in life, found me in the local supermarket and has now done my will. I am moving to Paris. For a year, maybe longer.

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

Senior government health officials ignored legal advice, deleted crucial text messages and misled investigators over the handling of a series of contracts worth $9 million, an audit office report has found. The contracts were given to a private consulting firm ostensibly to reform Meals on Wheels “governance” but ended in farce and with the firm in liquidation.

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

A senior executive at the National Disability Insurance Agency has resigned a week after another set of controversial changes to the program were sprung on participants with little warning. Corri McKenzie was known as a “fixer” in the disability community for her attempts to untangle some of the worst National Disability Insurance Scheme system snares that harmed participants or threatened to make things worse.

1 week ago | rick-morton.ghost.io | Rick Morton

— 15 min read The kinds of grievous injuries for which I might be covered under my travel insurance policy are oddly combinatorial, I noted with some grim amusement from the couch while I read. A lousy $25,000 for the loss of both feet or the loss of both hands. Similarly, the loss of one foot and one hand – any mix – attracts a 25k payout. So far, I can see the logic. The product disclosure statement then descends further into detail.

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

A $360 million cost-cutting drive at the University of Technology Sydney may have identified roles to terminate based on an unlawful metric that rates academics based on how much research income they produce.