Pressure mounts for Scott Morrison to leave parliament

Former prime minister Scott Morrison is facing calls to finally quit parliament as he is slammed for his role in robodebt – with his former ministers joining the fray.

Pressure is growing on former prime minister Scott Morrison to end his political career after a damning report from the robodebt royal commission.

Coalition MPs are among those suggesting Mr Morrison should quit parliament, with Nationals leader David Littleproud and Liberal MP Bridget Archer commenting on the saga.

Mr Morrison would need to “determine if he still has the heart to continue on” in the wake of the report and after he lost the prime ministership in May last year, Mr Littleproud said.

Scott Morrison is currently in Italy with his family after the bombshell report dropped. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“If he hasn’t, he should get out of the road because the people of Cook deserve someone who has the fire in the belly to stand up and to represent them in Canberra,” the Nationals leader, who served as agriculture minister in Mr Morrison’s cabinet, told Sky News.

“Mr Morrison now has to get back to first principles – he is there to represent the people of Cook, if his heart’s not in that it’s probably time for him to move on and let someone who does have the passion and the fire in the belly to do that.”

Commissioner Catherine Holmes last week handed down a 990-page report into the robodebt scandal, an unlawful automated debt recovery scheme that aimed to find discrepancies between what income welfare recipients received and what they were paid.

It illegally recovered more than $750m from 380,000 people from 2015 to 2019 and also sent incorrect debt notices to more than 400,000 Australians.

The scheme has also been linked to a number of suicides.

Mr Shorten heaped pressure on Mr Morrison to resign. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The former prime minister received the strongest criticism of any current or former politician in the report, with Commissioner Holmes finding he had misled the cabinet and failed in his duties by not ensuring the legality of income averaging.

“He chose not to inquire. Mr Morrison allowed cabinet to be misled because he did not make that obvious inquiry,” Commissioner Holmes wrote.

“He failed to meet his ministerial responsibility to ensure that cabinet was properly informed about what the proposal actually entailed and to ensure that it was lawful.”

A “number of individuals” were referred to civil and criminal authorities for investigation. It is not clear if Mr Morrison or any other former minister is included in that list.

He has faced fierce criticism from Government Services Minister Bill Shorten who has said a “self-respecting politician” would feel “embarrassed and humiliated” by its findings.

Jennifer Miller told the Commission that her son took his own life as a result of the scheme. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Mr Shorten told ABC radio the former prime minister’s decision is “an issue for him and the Liberal party”.

“Mr Morrison was the Liberal social security minister … when Robodebt was rolled out … It’s up to Mr Morrison. He must live in a separate world to the rest of us.

“ … anyone who reads the royal commission is going to form, I think, a different view about Mr Morrison’s proposed timetable for staying in parliament.”

Mr Morrison has slammed the commission‘s findings, labelling them “wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted” by the evidence.

“I reject completely each of the findings which are critical of my involvement in authorising the scheme and are adverse to me,” he said in a statement.

“They are wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear documentary evidence presented to the Commission.”

Mr Morrison also received criticism from within the Coalition ranks. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“It is unfortunate that these findings fail to acknowledge the proper functioning of government and cabinet processes in the face of not only my evidence as a former prime minister, and cabinet minister for almost nine years, but also the evidence of other cabinet ministers.”

Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer has also weighed in on the debate, saying he should go.

“I personally think it’s always difficult for a former prime minister to stay on in parliament,” Archer reportedly told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“This, alongside other things, do make it difficult for the party to draw a line under the past and move forward.”

Originally published as Pressure mounts for Scott Morrison to leave parliament