Northern Rivers resident & former NSW Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack: "I hadn’t realised the former PM’s capacity to upset ordinary people and destroy their trust in government, until now"

Former Liberal MLA Catherine Cusack, writing in The Guardian, 19 August 2022:

I hadn’t realised the former PM’s capacity to upset ordinary people and destroy their trust in government, until now

The most powerful man in the land exploited a health crisis to extract yet more power.’ Photograph: Steven Saphore/AFP/Getty Images

Scott Morrison still possesses an incredible ability to divide and destroy the Australian polity.

His capacity to upset ordinary people – erode their hopes and sour trust in the institutions they are forced to rely on – was overwhelming during Q+A on Thursday.

Technically I was a panel member – but for me, the audience is always the real panel and it was dismaying to observe their bewilderment, cynicism and anguish on the topic of the former prime minister.

I have personally been so twisted up about him since his dreadful visit as prime minister to Lismore after the floods that I hadn’t fully comprehended his wider toxic impact.

That is, until Thursday – listening to Penrith residents ask simple, legitimate questions, and watching their reactions while the camera was fixed on panellists who could only offer solidarity in lieu of answers. Because there are no acceptable answers. Morrison is relentlessly breaking the heart of Australian faith in democracy. And he seems to find that funny.

I do not believe anyone can truthfully say they “know” Morrison. I can say I have “experienced” Scott for 22 years. I have thought about him, tried to work with him and desperately wanted to understand him as a member of his Liberal “team”.

What a quixotic quest that turned out to be. Initially my concern was for the impact his scheming and power games were having on the Liberal party. When as state director he helped Alex Hawke take over scores of strategic Liberal branches it changed the culture of our organisation.

The scheming escalated to the point of thwarting his own party’s efforts to select candidates for the federal election. It made no sense. On 7.30 Leigh Sales asked “why?” and we were given the ludicrous reply: “I did it to help women.”

Understandably, the ordinary citizen may not care how the NSW Liberal party has been so ruthlessly used and rendered a smoking ruin. But Morrison and his government’s power games have had direct impacts on people’s lives.

I felt that intensely during the Northern Rivers floods. Under his government, victims in a Nationals electorate received cash payments denied to victims in a Labor electorate. The pain inflicted was far more than financial. This nasty political parry crushed a desperate community that needed solidarity and compassionate leadership. Instead, they were made to feel like worthless political pawns.

This was a betrayal of a government’s duty to serve every citizen of this country.