The
desirability of making welfare recipients cash cows for
big business
Speaking
before some 300 delegates in Sydney, Morrison said that an investment
approach to welfare was the way forward alongside the charitable
sector.
“Private
capital investment in addressing social needs – charity must
continue, and I believe it will – but real commercial investment is
needed in addressing social challenges the country faces,” Morrison
said.
“Non-Government
providers are not new to the sector particularly when it comes to
service delivery – you do it better than the Government ever can
and I think that’s been one of the lessons over the last four
years.
“We
need to continue to build institutional capability and capacity of
the non-Government sector for the delivery of these services but the
big innovation that we must seek has to come through private
investment.
“Partnerships
between civil society groups and our business community will become
not only more important, but critical to expanding the service base
that is provided.”
Morrison
told delegates that welfare must become a good deal for private
investors.
“We
have to make it a good deal for the returns to be there and to
attract the level of capital that will be necessary,” he said.
“The
investment approach to welfare offers much promise for the future
welfare system.”
[Xavier
Smerdon
(June 2015) writing in ProBono Australia, “Private
Capital Investment Needed to Expand Welfare System - Morrison”]
Australians
can forget about relying on the age pension when they retire,
according to Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison.
Echoing
his predecessor Joe Hockey's pledge about the age of entitlement
being over, in a speech on Friday Mr
Morrison said the age pension should no longer be seen as an
entitlement but "a welfare payment for
those who do not have the ability to save enough to fund their own
retirement".
"Becoming
a self-funded retiree, I think, is one of the most important
objectives of any Australian … it means you have choices and
control over your life and your care," Mr Morrison said.
[Australian
Treasurer Scott Morrison,
9
News, 30 Nov 2015]
"But
you also have to make sure your welfare system does the right thing
by those who are receiving it and the communities in which they live.
That is why we have put in place the Cashless Debit Card. In
particular in the member's electorate in Bundaberg and Hervey Bay
from 29 January this year that trial commenced, quarantining welfare
support from the purchase of alcohol or gambling products, where
those purchases have caused drug and alcohol misuse and problem
gambling. On 25 March this year we said we would be continuing trials
at the existing sites in Ceduna, East Kimberley and Goldfields, and,
of course, continuing those trials in Bundaberg and Hervey Bay….
Under
this government we're running a welfare system which is a hand up,
not out; one that understands that the best form of welfare is a job.
Through programs like the cashless debit card, which is supported by
this side of the House and opposed by that side of the House— (Time
expired)"
[House
of Representatives, Hansard
(31 July 2019) Prime Minister Scott
Morrison on the second time
he spoke directly about the “Cashless Debit Card”]
“we
are keeping the cashless debit card program running to protect more
vulnerable Australians from social harm”
[House
of Representatives, Hansard
(24
October 2019) Scott
Morrison on the the fourth and last time he uttered the words “Cashless
Debit Card” on the floor of the House]
NOTE:
In December 2020 Parliament passed the
controversial amendments to Cashless Debit Card (CDC) laws but last
minute amendments mean the trial sites would now be only
be extended for two years and not become permanent income management sites. The CDC would also only be optional for est. 25,000 people currently on the Basics Card in the
Northern Territory & Cape York, Qld.
Original commercial contracts and additional associated contracts are with Indue Limited.
“The
contentious CDC is being trialled in four regions - Ceduna in South
Australia, the East Kimberly and Goldfields region in the West and
Bundaberg and Hervey Bay in Queensland. The card quarantines 80 per
cent of government payments so they cannot be used to withdraw cash,
buy alcohol, or gamble.
Emotional
speeches dominated Parliament as fierce debate continued long into
the night.
The
legislation passed the Senate by just one vote after the government
failed to secure the support needed to make the CDC permanent with
the last-minute amendments leading Centre Alliance senator, Stirling
Griff declining to vote.
South
Australian senator Rex Patrick and Tasmanian senator Jaqui Lambie
both opposed the bill citing a lack of evidence and more investment
in wrap-around supports and services are needed.
Those
on the card are overwhelmingly Indigenous with the Minister for
Social Services and Families, Anne Ruston revealing the figures in
the Senate.
In
WA's East Kimberley 81 per cent of people on the CDC are First
Nations while in In the Goldfields 48 per cent of people and in the
Queensland trial sites its 18 per cent.
Eighty-one
per cent of people in the Northern Territory on the Basics Card are
First Nations people. ” [NITV,
10 December 2020]
The
sunset clause for Cashless Debit Card trial sites is 31 December
2022 and the 2021-22 Budget did not fund the program beyond that date. So expect Morrison & Co to quickly introduce legislation
to extend this coercive program if they retain government after 21
May 2022.
Future
militarisation of the response to civil disasters and unrest
PRIME
MINISTER: I think we have got to prepare for a new normal. And the
new normal, I think there is a community expectation now that there
be a more direct ability for the Commonwealth, particularly through
the Australian Defence Forces to be able to take action. See what
happened…
SPEERS:
What do you mean by that?
PRIME
MINISTER: What happened last Saturday, this was the change, the big
change, historic change, it moved from a respond to request posture,
to a move and integrate posture. Which means the defence force moving
in and then coming in and working with the local effort without
requests, without any instigation at a state level, now…..
SPEERS:
You want the power to deploy defence assets when you think you need
to?
PRIME
MINISTER: Where the Chief of the Defence Force believes there is a
risk to life and safety and can support…
[ABC
“Insiders” (January
2020) Prime Minister Scott
Morrison interview with David Speers,
transcript]
As
of this morning, three hundred Australian Defence Force troops have
been deployed primarily to southwest and western Sydney to help state
law enforcement police ensure the diverse communities of lower
socioeconomic standing comply with COVID stay-at-home orders.
NSW
police commissioner Mick Fuller put in a request to PM Scott Morrison
last Thursday afternoon……
The
troops won’t be armed or have any official powers. And the terms of
the deployment, as well as official orders, aren’t publicly
available.
However,
it’s lost upon no one that the troops have been sent out straight
after a huge and illegal anti-lockdown protest happened the weekend
prior to the deployment request…..
the
Turnbull-Morrison government streamlined the ability of the PM and
other designated ministers to deploy the military domestically, under
the Defence Amendment (Call Out of the Australian Defence Force) Bill
2018.
So,
rather than a measure of last resort, the executive can now deploy
the military to enhance the capabilities of state and territory
police in dealing with a threat of “domestic violence”, under the
auspices of section 119 of the Australian Constitution.
The
rather broad term domestic violence is left undefined within the
founding document. However, it is designated as something distinct
from “invasion” in that section of the Constitution.
Leading
on from this late 2018 beefing up of call out provisions, the
Morrison government passed a further bill last December, that
streamlined the ability of the executive to deploy ADF reservists to
domestic violence situations as well.
Section
33 of the Defence Act provides the governor general with the power to
call out ADF troops to assist with domestic violence issues that
threaten Commonwealth interests.
While
section 35 of the Act allows for the call out of the ADF to assist
state or territory law enforcement with “occurring, or likely to
occur,” domestic violence situations if the PM, the attorney
general or the defence minister is satisfied the situation requires
it.
Special
powers are bestowed to domestically deployed troops, via section 46,
when capturing or recapturing a location, or when preventing or
protecting against threats or acts of violence.
These
include powers to control movement, search and seizure powers, the
ability to detain citizens, to question them and to give them orders.
In
terms of “protest, dissent, assembly or industrial action”,
section 39 of the Act limits the powers of ADF troops to interfere in
such matters, “except if there is a reasonable likelihood of the
death of, or serious injury to, persons or serious damage to
property”.
Section
123 provides ADF personnel with immunity from state laws in relation
to registering a “vehicle, vessel, animal, firearm or other thing”.
And section 123AA provides immunity to any civil or criminal
liability in relation to anything done “in good faith” during
such domestic operations…...
there’s
a broader aspect to this use of the military to assist in managing
restriction compliance, and that’s the ever-creeping militarisation
of public life, whether that be via the coordination of the COVID-19
vaccines or turning the Australia Border Force into a paramilitary
institution.
Last
month, Australian peace activist Jacob Grech told Sydney Criminal
Lawyers that “the military is a bigger and bigger part of our
everyday lives”, and it’s “main focus, as assistance defence
minister Hastie said around Anzac Day, is the application of lethal
violence.”
“So,
every time we are looking at other issues and areas where the
military are involved – whether it’s with education or vaccine
rollout – we have to remember that their main application is lethal
violence.”
[Paul
Gregoire (October 2021)
writing in Sydney Criminal
Lawyers blog, “The
Laws Governing the Military’s Deployment on the Australian Public”]
A Morrison policy now hiding in the shadows
In
addition we will commence a modest drug testing trial for 5,000 new
welfare recipients.
JobSeeker
recipients who test positive would be placed on the Cashless Debit
Card for their welfare payments and be subjected to further tests and
possible referral for treatment.
Other
welfare measures include: strengthening verification requirements for
single parents seeking welfare, a crackdown on those attempting to
collect multiple payments, stricter residency rules for new migrants
to access Australian pensions, and denying welfare for a disability
caused solely by their own substance abuse….
Other
welfare measures include: strengthening verification requirements for
single parents seeking welfare, a crackdown on those attempting to
collect multiple payments, stricter residency rules for new migrants
to access Australian pensions, and denying welfare for a disability
caused solely by their own substance abuse.
[Australian
Treasurer Scott Morrison (May
2017) House of Representatives, Hansard,
p. 4067]
NOTE: The
Social Services
Legislation Amendment (Drug Testing Trial) Bill 2019 was
passed in the House of
Representatives on 17
October 2019 after the rejected
drug testing measures were again put to Parliament, this time by the Morrison
Government. These measures applied
to 5,000 new
Jobseeker and Youth Allowance
applicants in
Canterbury-Bankstown (NSW), Logan (QLD) and Mandurah (WA) for
a trial period of two years.
The bill is currently before the Senate after having received a favourable inquiry report and an unfavourable human rights report. To date it has not progressed to assent, seemingly waiting for a cleared legislative schedule after the re-election of a Morrison Government.
On the subject of Morrison's personal unlawful war against the poor and vulnerable
In
an interview with The Saturday Telegraph, the Prime Minister said he
doesn’t want Australia’s strong economy to be compromised by
bludgers who won’t pay back their debt.
“If
you’ve got welfare debts but you can afford to get on a plane and
go overseas, well — no,” Mr Morrison said.
[Prime
Minister Scott Morrison (22
Sept
2018) in
news.com.au]
Prime
Minister Scott Morrison has denied personal responsibility for the
Robodebt disaster, which has resulted in a $1.2 billion class action
settlement.
Mr
Morrison was social services minister when the unlawful scheme was
conceived and touted the billions of dollars it was supposed to rake
in during his time as treasurer.
He
continued the welfare debt recovery program as Prime Minister and
pinned a promised return to surplus on its projected windfall.
The
federal government finally pulled the plug on the policy late in 2019
in the face of a Federal Court challenge. It settled a class action
earlier in November, hours before the trial was to begin.…..
Thousands
of debt notices demanding repayments were based on false information.
But
Mr Morrison argues the use of income averaging brought the Robodebt
scheme undone, not the full automation of the process.
“It’s
actually not about the computer, it’s about the assumption made
that a debt is raised by averaging people’s incomes,” he told
Sydney radio 2GB on Wednesday.
“Income
averaging was found not to be a valid means of raising a debt, that’s
what it’s about. This is just the Labor Party trying to throw some
mud.”
Robodebt
victims are to receive $112 million in compensation, be repaid $720
million and have $400 million in unlawful debts wiped…..
“We’ve
got on with fixing it, that’s what we’ve got on with doing. Labor
wants to just keep kicking it along for their own political reasons,”
the Prime Minister said.
[Journalist
Daniel McCulloch
writing in
The
New Daily, 25 November
2020]
The
Morrison government has told a tribunal there is “strong public
interest” in preserving the secrecy of “business case”
documents that may outline the nucleus of the unlawful robodebt
scheme.
IT
expert Justin Warren won access to documents connected to the
since-scrapped welfare debt recovery program under freedom of
information laws in 2019, but he is yet to receive them after the
government appealed against the decision.
Warren’s
lawyer argues there is “profound” public interest in release
because they may shed light on what went wrong with the scheme, which
eventually saw the government reach a $1.8bn settlement with about
400,000 victims in what the federal court called a “shameful
chapter”.
The
Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which is considering the
government’s latest attempt to keep the documents secret, heard
closing arguments from both parties on Thursday.
The
tribunal has previously heard the documents include detailed costings
and other financial data about the program, which matched yearly
income data against a person’s fortnightly reports to Centrelink to
send a person a debt.
They
are also said to include draft “new policy proposal” documents
and purported attachments that outline a new plan to ramp up the
government’s welfare debt recovery.
The
tribunal is considering, among other issues, whether the documents
were prepared for the cabinet process or were simply being worked on
internally by the then Department of Human Services, which
administered the robodebt scheme.
Counsel
for the commonwealth, Andrew Berger QC, insisted on Thursday the
documents should not be released because they were prepared for
cabinet.
[Journalist
Luke Henriques-Gomes
writing in
The
Guardian, 23 December
2021]
NOTE:
As of 1 July 2022 a new federal employment service, Workforce Australia, will begin which encompasses all employment services delivered by the Dept. of Education, Skills and Employment. Workforce Australia falls with the portfolios of Ministers Stuart Robert, Alan Tudge & Bridgit McKenzie as well as Assistant Minister Like Howarth.
As well as transferring more personal responsibility to an unemployed person to provide their own employment opportunities, it also increases the mutual obligation provisions by creating a digitalised points system whose software will decide if the unemployed person has met all mutual obligation requirements in any reporting period - with the apparent penalty for non-compliance being a reduction or suspension of benefits. One suspects that this new employment service is where the aforementioned "new plan to ramp up the government's welfare debt recovery" will initially be applied if the Morrison Government is re-elected.
On being the best economic manager
On 18 September 2013 when Scott John Morrison moved from the Opposition benches to the Government side of the House of Representatives and straight into the new ministry and a Cabinet position, the nation's annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annual growth was in the vicinity of 2.6%. By the end of the year he became Australian Treasurer GDP growth had slowed to 2.2%. In the year Morrison became prime minister growth rose to 2.9% and, then fell off a cliff a good twelve months before the global pandemic began, to bottom at the end of 2020 at minus zero annual growth according to the World Bank.
World
Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data files.
Annual
percentage growth rate of GDP at market prices based on constant
local currency. Aggregates are based on constant 2015 prices,
expressed in U.S. dollars. GDP is the sum of gross value added by all
resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus
any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It is
calculated without making deductions for depreciation of fabricated
assets or for depletion and degradation of natural resources.
An
economy's growth is measured by the change in the volume of its
output or in the real incomes of its residents. The 2008 United
Nations System of National Accounts (2008 SNA) offers three plausible
indicators for calculating growth: the volume of gross domestic
product (GDP), real gross domestic income, and real gross national
income. The volume of GDP is the sum of value added, measured at
constant prices, by households, government, and industries operating
in the economy. GDP accounts for all domestic production, regardless
of whether the income accrues to domestic or foreign institutions.
In
2021 Australia's annual GDP growth over the year was a lacklustre1.5% before the December quarter
came in at 3.4%. From the end December 2021 to March 2022 GDP growth has held at 4.2% but the International Monetary Fund appears to think that will shrink to est. 2.5% by the end of 2023 and fall yet again in 2024.
Then there was this......
While Monday's mid-year budget update forecasts a slight improvement in the budget bottom line this financial year - with a deficit of $36.5 billion rather than the $37.1 billion expected - the following three years will see the budget bottom line head further into the red than expected.
The deficit in 2017-18 will be $28.7 billion, up from $26.1 billion forecast in May. In 2018-19 it will be $19.7 billion and in 2019-20 the deficit will nearly double from $6 billion to $10 billion. In total, deficits over the next four years will total $94.9 billion.
In a statement, S&P said the latest budget forecasts would have "no immediate impact" on Australia's credit rating, but added a strong warning about the nation's worsening forecast fiscal position placing further pressure on the rating.
"We remain pessimistic about the government's ability to close existing budget deficits and return a balanced budget by the year ending June 30, 2021. Over the coming months, we will continue to monitor the government's willingness and ability to enact new budget savings or revenue measures to reduce fiscal deficits materially over the next few years," the statement said.
[The Age, 20 December 2016, p.1]
Followed by this a little over six years later.....
At its meeting today, the Board decided to increase the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 35 basis points. It also increased the interest rate on Exchange Settlement balances from zero per cent to 25 basis points….
Over the year to the March quarter, headline inflation was 5.1 per cent…
This rise in inflation largely reflects global factors. But domestic capacity constraints are increasingly playing a role and inflation pressures have broadened, with firms more prepared to pass through cost increases to consumer prices.….
The central forecast for 2022 is for headline inflation of around 6 per cent and underlying inflation of around 4¾ per cent; by mid 2024…..
The Board is committed to doing what is necessary to ensure that inflation in Australia returns to target over time. This will require a further lift in interest rates over the period ahead.
[Reserve Bank of Australia, media release (3 May 2022) Statement by Philip Lowe, Governor: Monetary Policy Decision, Number 2022-12]
The
entire time Morrison has been a Cabinet Minister - rising
to Treasurer in 2015 & Prime Minister in 2018 – every single
national budget has been a deficit budget.
Not even in 2019 did he manage to keep the national accounts out of the red.
So what has Morrison had to say over the years about the national economy?
SCOTT
MORRISON: In my electorate there are many families and there are many
individuals who have mortgages and they would like to see rates come
down.
[ABC
“The World Today”
(September 2008)
Liberal MP for Cook Scott
Morrison on the subject of
the Reserve Bank lowering the interest rate]
The
Prime Minister, campaigning in western Sydney on Monday, channelled
former party leader John Howard by saying the government was
committed to “keeping downward pressure” on interest rates, which
are at a record low of 0.1 per cent….
Mr
Morrison said the lift in inflation in the United States, where it
climbed to 6.2 per cent last week, highlighted the issues at play in
the Australian economy.
“I
think it does highlight Australia’s economic recovery has to be
secured by people who have a track record in economic management,
otherwise you will see petrol prices go up, you will see electricity
prices go up, you will see interest rates go up, more than they would
need to,” he said.
[Australian
Prime Minister Scott
Morrison
(15 April 2022), The
Sydney Morning Herald]
“Well,
inflation, as you know, is about how quickly costs are rising.”
[Australian Prime Minister Scott
Morrison (30
April 2022)
interview
with political commentator Peter van Onselen]
Prime
Minister Scott Morrison, who has said interest rates would be lower
under his government than under Labor, yesterday urged journalists
not to politicise the potential rate rise…..
Morrison,
campaigning in Victoria, said there were pressures coming from
outside of Australia on the nation's interest rate settings.
He
said the current rate of 0.1 per cent was "unconventionally low" and taxpayers understood they would start to move up.
"The
pressures on interest rates ... the pressures on cost of living,
highlight just why the economy is so important in this election,"
he said.
[Scott
Morrison quoted in The
Sydney Morning Herald, 3
May 2022, p.1]
On the touchy subject of religion within the corridors of a secular democratic parliament
God
moves in mysterious ways, and never more so than when He moves into
politics. On Thursday, for example, the Liberal Party announced that
its candidate for the seat of Greenway, centred around Blacktown,
would be Louise Markus, a prominent member of Hillsong, Australia's
largest church…..
You
might have thought someone standing for such a marginal seat would
want all the media attention he or she could get, but the Liberals'
state director, Scott Morrison, refused to let the Herald talk to
her. He said she would
do "local media first".
Instead
Morrison, himself a man of "strong religious views",
launched into a pitch for the type of "faith-based programs"
that Hillsong had established to address social problems.
"In
the [United] States there is an increasing tendency of governments
particularly the Bush Government to get behind what are called
faith-based programs," he enthused.
"That
is where governments start to lift the constraints on the Noffses and
the Bill Crewses and others, to enable them to really help people,
beyond just the material, and give them life advice which involves
faith. Those programs, I understand, have had some great success."
Markus
works for Emerge, the Hillsong offshoot whose facilities and programs
range from medical centres and emergency relief services to drug and
alcohol programs, and personal development and recovery programs.
The
CEO there, Leigh Coleman, would not put us in contact with Markus,
either. And so the views of the Hillsong employee and Liberal
candidate on the desirability of passing responsibility for social
welfare issues from secular government agencies to religious
organisations must for now remain a mystery.
Perhaps
some light will be shed when the chief
pastor of Hillsong, Brian Houston, addresses Federal Parliament's
Christian fellowship prayer breakfast when next it meets,
in about a month…..
Are
we witnessing here the growth of a US-style religious right influence
on politics, particularly on Liberal Party politics?
The
state director, Scott Morrison concedes: "Certainly there is a
strong element in the party which holds very deep religious
convictions."
[Liberal
Party Director Scott
Morrison (12 April 2004),
The
Sydney Morning Herald]
He
also acknowledges that the Liberal Party, once largely comprised of
members of the established Protestant faiths, is these days
"literally a broad church"…..
[Journalists
Mike Seccombe,
Aban Contractor
and
Mark Metherell,
The Sydney Morning Herald,
12 April 2002, p.13]
Since
entering the parliament and before I have held a very clear,
consistent and public view supporting the current definition of
marriage as a voluntary union for life of a man and a woman to the
exclusion of all others. I maintain this view and issued a statement
to my electorate on 19 November last year to initiate feedback from
my constituents…..
Religions
and cultures over centuries have held that family is ultimately based
on the union of a man and a woman. I do not believe that the tested
wisdom of centuries has been overwhelmed by more contemporary
arguments. I acknowledge that in today's society too many
heterosexual marriages fail. Family breakdown is the primary cause of
poverty, disadvantage, mental illness and related conditions in our
society today. The biggest victims of marriage failure and family
breakdown are children. The social and economic costs of family
breakdown are incalculable. This is a genuine national tragedy, not
an argument for same-sex marriage. Legal recognition of same-sex
unions does not, and should not, require the redefinition of
marriage.
Marriage,
as I have said, is a union between a man and a woman to the exclusion
of all others for life. Legal recognition of a same-sex union should
be termed something else. I have no objection to some other form of
legal recognition of such relationships in the form of a type of
civil union provided such unions do not provide any automatic access
to adoption. I appreciate there are many in the community who hold a
different view to those I have expressed in this place. Of those who
contacted me by mail, petition and email who I was able to identify
in my electorate, more than 850 were against changes to the Marriage
Act, while over 50 were in favour. I do not seek to represent this as
a representative poll—my position will not be determined by such
polls—but it would appear that of those who feel strongly about
this issue a majority were in favour of retaining the current
definition rather than changing it.
As
we look at this issue, though, I think we need to be mindful of what
the real threats to marriage are in the context of this debate, and I
believe that such threats are posed more from within than from
without. This debate should remind us that anniversaries in marriage
are earned, not arrived at, and we should all work on the sanctity of
marriage.
[House
of Representatives, Hansard
(24 Aug 2011) Liberal
MP for Cook & Shadow
Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Scott
Morrison]
Scott
Morrison has asked a national conference of Christian churches to
help him help Australia, while revealing his belief that he and his
wife, Jenny, have been called upon to do God’s work.
In
video that has emerged of the prime minister speaking at the
Australian Christian Churches conference on the Gold Coast last week,
Morrison also revealed that he had sought a sign from God while on
the 2019 election campaign trail, and that he had practised the
evangelical tradition of the “laying-on of hands” while working
in the role of prime minister.
He
also describes the misuse of social media as the work of “the evil
one”, in reference to the Devil, and called on his fellow believers
to pray against its corrosive effect on society.
While
Australians are familiar with the non-evangelical Christian beliefs
of John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull,
Morrison is the first Pentecostal Christian to hold the office.
Morrison
has been open about his faith, inviting journalists into the Horizon
church in the Sutherland shire during the 2019 election campaign, and
describing his subsequent victory as a “miracle” win. Footage of
him calling for prayers for state and territory leaders during the
Covid pandemic has also emerged.
The
prime minister travelled to the conference from Sydney using his
taxpayer-funded aircraft. No video of the address has been promoted
on his Facebook or official pages, nor has his office released a copy
of his speech, as usually occurs when he is speaking in his official
capacity as prime minister.
The
video, which was broadcast by Vineyard Christian church then
distributed by the Rationalist Society, gives rare insight into
Morrison’s personal religious practice and the beliefs that guide
him and the rapidly growing Pentecostal movement in Australia…..
Talking
about a difficult time during the final fortnight of the election
campaign, Morrison shared a story of asking God for a sign before
visiting the Ken Duncan Gallery on the New South Wales Central Coast.
“I
must admit I was saying to myself, ‘You know, Lord, where are you,
where are you? I’d like a reminder if that’s OK,’” Morrison
says.
“And
there right in front of me was the biggest picture of a soaring eagle
that I could imagine and of course the verse hit me.
“The
message I got that day was, ‘Scott, you’ve got to run to not grow
weary, you’ve got to walk to not grow faint, you’ve got to spread
your wings like an eagle to soar like an eagle.’”
He
told the conference that he and Jenny had been grateful for the
“amazing prayers and support” sent from Christians across the
country, and shared with the crowd that he had practised the laying
on of hands, a Pentecostal tradition of healing and encouragement to
faith.
“I’ve
been in evacuation centres where people thought I was just giving
someone a hug and I was praying, and putting my hands on people …
laying hands on them and praying in various situations,” he says….
[Political
journalist Sarah Martin
writing about Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s faith in The
Guardian, 26 April
2021]
*My yellow highlighting throughout this post
