Mean Streak

A Moral Vacuum and a Multi-Billion Dollar Government Shake Down

Rick Morton

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English

HARPER360
16 October 2024

Welfare & benefit systems; Central government policies; Political corruption; Welfare economics; Social security & welfare law; Australian Society

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From award-winning journalist and writer Rick Morton comes Mean Streak, a gripping and horrifying account of how, over the course of four and a half years, Australia's government turned on its most vulnerable citizens.

Robodebt was a new debt-creation system that was used to illegally pursue close to half a million Australian welfare recipients for fake debts generated by the thousands. It was described by the Royal Commission's report as a 'massive failure of public administration' caused by 'venality, incompetence and cowardice'. Essentially, Australians were gaslit by their own government, which doggedly and knowingly concocted a program that was both mathematically wrong and illegal, just to shake down innocent people for money, then lied about it for four and a half years. Robodebt is a historic and appalling political tragedy, a scheme created deliberately and sustained by institutional cowardice, clearly displaying the systematic contempt that a government had for its own citizens.

Powerfully moving, deeply compelling and utterly enraging, Mean Streak reveals disturbing truths about the country we have become and the government that was. In the mode of a corporate thriller, this is a scouring cautionary tale of morality in public life gone badly awry - a story that is bigger than robodebt, and far from over.

Praise for Rick Morton:

'A crack storyteller ... his words and stories are infused with genuine compassion'

Christos Tsiolkas

'Morton is an intelligent, funny, endearing writer' Australian Book Review

'Morton is fresh ... He's brilliant' The Monthly

'Wonderfully readable ... Morton is a national treasure' Books+Publishing

By: Rick Morton
Imprint: HARPER360
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 155mm, Spine: 34mm
Weight: 529g
ISBN: 9781460765807
ISBN 10: 146076580X
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 16 October 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Rick has been a journalist and writer for over fifteen years. He is the winner of the 2013 Kennedy Award for Young Journalist of the Year and the 2017 Kennedy Award for Outstanding Columnist. In 2019, Rick left The Australian where he worked as the social affairs writer with a particular focus on social policy and is now a senior reporter for the Saturday Paper. Rick regularly appears on television, radio and panels across both the ABC and commercial networks discussing politics, the media, writing and social policy.