The sudden resignation of controversy-plagued National Anti-Corruption Commissioner Paul Brereton has served to further highlight the failings of an organisation which began with such high hopes, having been one of the key demands of the first teal representatives and a core promise of the incoming Albanese Labor government.

As an eager Young Liberal in the 1980s, I was schooled by a generation of older Australians whose values were forged during World War II.

With so many failures of government to be angry at this month, it is hard to know where to start. An anger management course? 

According to the recent Royal Commission, nearly half a million Australians received false Robodebt notices. Welfare recipients – people living in poverty, were criminalised by an automated debt-recovery system that left people to dispute a debt they never had. The system used to calculate the debt was wrong. It caused enormous harm to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people.

The logical conclusion of a philosophy which views anyone on welfare as a bludger and anyone poor as fair game was on horrifying display as Robodebt Royal Commissioner Catherine Holmes AC SC revealed her 1,039 page report to the Australian public on Friday.

The very first amendment made to the American Constitution protects freedom of speech and freedom of the press. 

Hearings at the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme will end this week, and its report is due at the end of June.

Aspirational political parties are judged on how they deliver dreams. Vision politicians are judged according to how many of their visions turn out to be mirages. The task is much harder for the ALP at a federal level than a party like the modern Liberals, who have no apparent aspirations apart from making rich people richer, and making poor people feel guilty for not being rich.