That’s a misreading of my post, I believe. And I do defend the man to the extent that he’s been required to resolve some extraordinarily complex and competing priorities. I don’t envy him the challenge, nor the burden of making those decisions.
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I have nothing against him personally but I think he’s made several errors of judgement in this case, and they are magnified because they are scarring public trust in a nascent institution. Defending those errors because of his character is indeed playing the man not the ball.
If you read through my posts you’ll see that I haven’t defended *any* of the judgements he’s made. Very deliberately. I have, however, defended what I believe to be the integrity and thoughtfulness with which he has endeavoured to make them.
This is bluesky, not the spanish inquisition - I can only make a call on what I read, not your intention. I wasn't saying you were coming from a bad place - I just thought it was an odd thing to rail against pile-on replying to a post of the article rather than the actual pile-on. Probably just me.
@hingehead.bsky.social there are many people in this world who make bad decisions for bad reasons. In my view this was not the case here. And I tire of living in a world where we rain hellfire down on people whose decisions we don’t like but also don’t have to make, in all their complexity.
I don't think it was a singular wrong decision the entire process seems tainted by his repeated involvement - in spite of warnings from NACC colleagues - that line "it was not just foreseeable but foreseen" feels like pattern blindness to natural justice - not something that he is known for.
Correct! Not something he’s known for. So where’s our curiosity? When I listened to his explanation at his speech I Friday I may have had my own views on where he landed but I also felt he made his decision weighing up complex matters with serious, nuanced consideration and thought. I rest my case.
And for the record .. those who acted knowingly, deliberately and with forethought to design and implement Robodebt should have every book under the sun thrown at them. It was cruel, heartless and unconscionable.
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Pile-ons suck. Particularly when there’s a real person lying at the bottom of it.
Then again, you’re the only one who stuck around to finish the conversation so kudos.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 🙏