Ray Hadley: The brutal truth about why no-show Scott Morrison had to go

SCOTT Morrison, the floods, the WestConnex, North Korea, rugby union, NSW Police. Just some of the people and issues that have Ray Hadley talking.

1 INSTEAD of reporting and commenting on the news my program was the news earlier this week. There’s been a great deal of misreporting about the matter involving Treasurer Scott Morrison. The facts are simple: Mr Morrison has been a regular on my program on Monday mornings for over four years. As is sometimes the case his office told us he couldn’t appear last Monday because he was “travelling”. Just before I was about to offer his apologies on Monday I was told he was on ABC radio in Melbourne. I instructed my staff to get him on after he’d finished with the ABC. He declined. I made a decision he’d no longer be a guest on the program on two counts. One, the Treasurer or his office lied to me and secondly, since Malcolm Turnbull’s elevation to Prime Minister, Morrison has become less forthright and continues to avoid answering difficult questions. Tony Abbott will make his first appearance on Easter Monday.

The bromance is over for Ray Hadley and Scott Morrison.

2 It’s taken a bit of time but the state government and federal government have finally elevated the national disaster relief for northern NSW to category C. That means small businesses can immediately access grants of up to $15,000 to assist with their clean-up and recovery costs.

3 I’m hopeful the DPP will appeal the lenient sentence given to lifelong paedophile Allan Kenneth Brookes. Brookes has been preying on children for most of his adult life and recently was found guilty of horrific assaults on a boy in rural NSW and pleaded guilty to bestiality. He had sex with a cow in the presence of the boy. Despite the court’s outrage at his behaviour this grub will be out when he’s in his early 60s after copping just seven years.

4 While the royal commissioner into the sexual abuse of children, Justice Peter McClellan, is saying some outstanding things about the sentencing of paedophiles not everyone thinks the same. Channel 7 ­featured a psychologist, Dr Chris Lemmings, telling us paedophiles ­deserve another chance and in some cases should be allowed to work with children. Such madness needs to ­condemned.

5 The NSW police continue to target trucks and dogs working at WestConnex. This week they found another 17 trucks with defects, six of them major. It’s time Stuart Ayres, the NSW minister responsible, pulled the lead contractor into line. They don’t care about too much accept for their bottom line. The government needs to act before someone is killed.

6 Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has already put his stamp on his new job. This week he replaced deputy commissioner Catherine Burn with deputy commissioner Dave Hudson as the person to be in charge of Counter Terrorism and State Crime Command. Hudson is a vastly experienced operational officer and is well placed to lead the force in those two areas. He didn’t learn about such matters from a text book.

7 American President Donald Trump has been congratulated for his strong words and actions in relation to North Korea. For too long the lunatic that runs the dictatorship has held the world to ransom. All of a sudden the Chinese are trying to get Kim Jong-un to behave himself.

8 Animal Justice upper house MP Mark Pearson is in strife with his own supporters for tucking into a seafood meal. Vegans across NSW are spitting chips, kale and mung beans.

9 The ARU need to one thing and that’s start to reinvent grassroots rugby union. For too long they’ve been worried about the apex of the game and ignored the people at the bottom who do all the hard yards.

10 I’m on air today and again on Easter Monday. I look forward to your company.