Our tin-eared Prime Minister Scott Morrison once again fails to comprehend how deeply he can offend with his constant self-promoting photoshoots

For reasons best known to himself Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook (Sydney NSW) Scott Morrison fancies himself as a bit of a chef.

Though perhaps his persistence in displaying his dubious skills in frequent clunky, over-staged, photoshopped photoshoots could be laid at the feet of Annabel Crabb's ABC television show "Kitchen Cabinet" where in 2015 she featured Morrison cooking a curry while admitting that his self-applied nickname "ScoMo" was quite "new".

He obviously thought that episode a public relations relations success. In the years since he has pushed that #ScottyTheChef persona to a point where it has made him the subject of much derision and not a little bit of satire. 

After he infamously ran away from a national crisis in December 2019, holiday photoshoots have also been well and truly weaponised by the general public, cartoonists & satirists and that weapon pointed straight at his head. 

Take this recent piece..... 

Satirical blog The Shovel on Wednesday, 29 December 2021 when Australia’s daily COVID-19 new case count stood at 32,946 infected people including 8 dead in the last 24 hours:

With the nation facing its highest COVID case numbers ever, and testing facilities stretched to their limit, PM Scott Morrison made an urgent address to the nation this afternoon to announce a new Sri Lankan curry which he says is now one of his favourites.

“It’s curry night!” Mr Morrison said, as daily national case numbers climbed towards 20,000 and lines for PCR testing continued to stretch to more than five hours......

However, our emotionally tone deaf prime minister either ignores or fails to see the warning signs that makes it risky to promote his Kirribilli House New Year's Eve private harbourside parties to watch the fireworks. Particularly this time around as the nation enters its third year of a global pandemic.

This was #ScottyTheChef on social media on 31 December 2021 when the national daily COVID-19 new case count was 35,326 infected people, including 13 dead in the last 24 hours:

SNAPSHOT: @adamajacoby

Surely someone in the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet had registered the increasingly naked distress being expressed on social media, as infection and hospitalisation numbers grew on the Australian east coast, public health response//support measures began to be withdrawn and individuals, families and communities were being told in so many words that they were on their own now 'living with COVID'.

Perhaps his media team might like to suggest to Morrison that he lie low the day before Australia Day 2022 as 25 January is the anniversary of the very first confirmed case of COVID-19.

COVID-19 testing system in NSW buckles under strain after increase in infection numbers along with federal & state policy shifts place public health response burden on the individual not government

 

ABC News, 21 December 2021:

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard concedes the state's COVID-19 testing system is under "massive pressure" as clinics turn people away and wait times blow out.

Before the arrival of Omicron variant in late November, when NSW's daily case numbers hovered at the 250 mark, testing rates sat at about 60,000 per day.

Since Friday night, more than 426,000 people have braved queues to be tested across the state, with more than 8,000 new positive cases recorded in the past three days.

Mr Hazzard said testing sites, as well as the public and private laboratories that analysed the swabs, were under pressure.

"Obviously they're trying to access the various products that are required to do the testing, but that's not the sole issue," he said.

"The issue is also that the staffing from not only doing the actual pathology testing, but also the administration — making sure people are advised of their results — is currently under massive pressure."…..

For the sites that are open, queues have stretched around the block, forcing people to line up for hours at some clinics.

Wait times for results have blown out to 72 hours in some cases.

NSW Labor Health Spokesman Ryan Park said the state government needed to "fulfil their end of the bargain" after the Premier asked people to take personal responsibility and get tested in light of the spike in cases.

He said more clinics, staff and equipment were needed to meet the surging demand and to cut wait times.

"It simply doesn't make sense," he said.

"They (the government) need to listen to the message that's coming from the community."

The demand for testing in the lead-up to Christmas has also seen pharmacies run out of rapid antigen test kits.

Health officials convened for several hours on Tuesday morning to consider the stresses faced by the testing system…..

Read the full article here.

Cartoon of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

Morrison Government did not finish the 2021 Australian Parliamentary year in a blaze of glory

 

The Australian Parliament House Of Representatives and Senate now stand adjourned until 12 noon on 8 February 2022.

This is how the parliamentary year ended for the Morrison Government – women both inside and outside the parliament were openly critical of the Prime Minister and the government he leads.

Political commentator and author Niki Savva writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 December 2021:

The last time Bridget Archer alerted the Prime Minister’s office in advance that she was considering voting against the government, she says she had two senior members of his staff literally standing over her in her office.

Archer told colleagues at the time, and has since confirmed it to this columnist, that for almost two weeks she felt bullied, threatened and intimidated by the staffers – one male, one female, both of whom have been around politics a long time who should know better – seeking to persuade her to vote with the government.

Archer spoke against the cashless welfare card legislation, then abstained from voting. Her decision triggered a campaign of online abuse …..

Lately, constituents in her notoriously fickle Tasmanian seat of Bass, which she holds with a margin of 0.4 per cent, have been stopping her on the street, saying: “we like you Bridget, but...” The “but” drips with portent for Scott Morrison and the government.

So last Thursday Archer crossed the floor to second a motion by independent Helen Haines for a national commission against corruption. Archer regards the right to stand up for a principle, even if it means going against the government and the Prime Minister, as the defining feature of the party. It’s what makes people like her become a Liberal.

To avoid a repeat of her experience last year, the only people she told in advance of her intention were her staff and Haines. She did not even tell the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, two nights before when she and other MPs ate takeaway pizza and pasta in his office.

When she burst into tears in Morrison’s office, after Frydenberg had escorted her there like an errant schoolgirl, it was an emotional release, not a sign of weakness.

Archer had no problem with Morrison expressing his displeasure. He said his piece. After composing herself, she said hers. She owned her actions. She did not apologise for supporting Haines, she did not take a single backward step. She told Morrison she was neither a “drone” nor a “warm body” – words he later appropriated to describe rebellious backbenchers and convey to the media his tolerance of them.

Archer told Morrison about his staff, pointedly asking that “they stay away from me”. She also made clear she would cross the floor again if necessary. Archer’s experience underlines the importance of Kate Jenkins’ finding that cultural change to tackle bullying and sexual harassment in Parliament House has to come from the top.

Archer reckons the government has got its priorities all wrong. Although she empathises with Gladys Berejiklian, she believes the ICAC was doing its job, arguing such a body – rather than a religious freedom bill – is essential to help restore people’s faith in politicians.

One is a problem which exists that needs to be fixed, the other looks like a fix for a problem which doesn’t exist, as the deeply religious NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet implied on Sky by asking “why now?”

Archer fears the religious discrimination bill could be a “slippery slope”. She says she will vote against it if it impinges on the rights of others, particularly the LGBTIQ community.

At least she will have company with Trent Zimmerman, Dave Sharma and Warren Entsch expressing similar views, which explains why Morrison is in no rush to put it to a vote.

The Prime Minister pretended to be as relaxed about Archer’s actions this time as he was last time, saying what close friends and colleagues they were and what a grand old party he led which allowed members to express themselves freely.

He does that often. Boasts about being good friends with people when really it’s just heavy duty Spakfilla patter, sealing up the cracks or covering his own poor behaviour.

He has done it with Berejiklian too, even though she confided several times to friends he tried to bully her, and while Premier she got her office to tell Morrison’s office to stop undermining and backgrounding against her……

ABC, “7.30” program, 2 December 2021:

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Laura Tingle is with us from Canberra. Laura, as much as governments like to clear the decks at the end of the year, especially going into an election year, there is always unfinished business. What are the leftovers this year that are likely to be significant going into 2022?

LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the leftovers are things that probably never now see the light of day before the election, Leigh.

The big ones are the election promises for an anti-corruption commission - not going to see the light of day at the rate we are going. The government hasn't even tabled its proposed legislation on that and has baulked at letting a debate go on about Helen Haines' alternative model.

The other one is the religious discrimination bill, another election promise. It got about an hour's worth of debate this afternoon in the House of Representatives but will be really struggling now to get debated, if Parliament does indeed come back, and it's losing friends as we go. The Christian lobby today signalled that it was not all that keen on the way the debate was going.

And finally, there was this very last-minute proposal about voter ID legislation which offended a lot of people and outraged them. That's now been dumped very unceremoniously, and Labor insists there wasn't a deal on this, but one of the things that has come up as a bit of a surprise is a move that really puts incredible pressure on charities to declare themselves as political campaigners and that is going to have a huge impact, particularly, I think, in the area of environmental charities.

LEIGH SALES: As we know, trust has been an issue for the Prime Minister in recent times, how did that play into a matter that made headlines today regarding the awarding of a quarantine contract?

LAURA TINGLE: This is a story that's sort of come up a few times since September, Leigh, including when the ABC's Andrew Greene reported it. These are contracts to set up a private quarantine hotel arrangement and it was let by a limited tender to two of Scott Morrison's closest friends, including a former Liberal Party director or deputy director called Scott Briggs.

Now, the Prime Minister was really outraged at the suggestion that he had somehow intervened in this policy or was somehow involved in the letting of the contracts, but once again, because this issue of trust has become such a terrible one and I think separate questions, there's been this focus right through the whole year about transparency and accountability in the awarding of grants, that this is the last thing the Prime Minister needs, particularly on an issue like quarantine where things haven't really gone all that well for the Government this year anyway.

LEIGH SALES: Just to switch the focus to Labor, stakes are also high for Anthony Albanese going into an election year. What do you think are the issues Labor is going to need to get in order over the summer break?

LAURA TINGLE: I think they'll have to look at making sure that they have a sound story on the economy. I think the Government's now vulnerable on that.

They have obviously got their climate policy coming out over this next few days and those are the two really big things that they are going to have to sort out, other than that they have got to look, a bit like Kevin Rudd in 2007, they are sort of like the government, only trustworthy.

LEIGH SALES: Laura Tingle, thanks very much.

LAURA TINGLE: Thanks, Leigh.

Last week 2 MPs crossed the floor to vote against the government - George Christensen & Bridget Archer. Only one of these Members was hauled into the Prime Minister’s office & reduced to tears.

Australian women know why Ms Archer received this special treatment. #auspol pic.twitter.com/L4B14h3rzH

— Senator Jenny McAllister (@jennymcallister) November 29, 2021

 

ABC, “7.30” program, 2 December 2021:

RACHELLE MILLER, FORMER COALITION STAFFER: Today I want to stand in my former workplace and to say again that what happened to me was not okay.

LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Today former political staffer Rachelle Miller said she wanted to tell her story. It involved someone much more powerful and famous - Alan Tudge - currently the Federal Minister for Education and Youth.

Miller first disclosed a relationship with Tudge, her former boss, on Four Corners ‘Inside the Canberra Bubble’ report late last year.

(Excerpt from Four Corners - Inside the Canberra Bubble)

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Rachelle Miller says her affair with Alan Tudge, now acting immigration minister, was completely consensual.

(End of excerpt)

LAURA TINGLE: But today she had a lot more to say and the world has changed considerably since she first spoke out. This week Australians were shocked by the anonymous stories of sexual assault, harassment and bullying in Parliament House.

Today Rachelle Miller put a face to those stories and those stories were not just about assault but about culture and power imbalances.

RACHELLE MILLER: I am fully aware that a year ago I said that my relationship with Minister Alan Tudge was a consensual relationship, but it's much more complicated than that.

When I spoke out, not a single person from this Government contacted me to see if I was okay. One female chief of staff sent me a text and that was it.

LAURA TINGLE: Miller said this was a story about Parliament House and she spoke at exactly the same spot where Scott Morrison commented about the case of another political staffer - Brittany Higgins.

SCOTT MORRISON, PRIME MINISTER (February): Jenny and I spoke last night, and she said to me you have to think about this as a father first. What would you want to happen if it were our girls? Jenny has a way of clarifying things.

LAURA TINGLE: Miller’s intervention today, challenging the voters of Aston to consider the behaviour she alleges of Tudge - a man she claims physically kicked her out of bed because her phone had disturbed his sleep - is a suitable coda to a political year dominated by the issue of the treatment of women in politics.

Mr Tudge quote “completely and utterly” rejected Miller’s version of events today and said he deeply regretted the consensual affair.

But despite the denials, Miller’s statement still posed big problems for the Prime Minister.

After all, earlier this week, he had described the Jenkins reports’ findings of what goes on in Parliament House as ‘appalling’ and ‘disturbing’.

SCOTT MORRISON: But given the seriousness of these claims that have been made by Ms Miller, it is important that these matters be resolved fairly and expeditiously.

To this end, the Minister has agreed to my request to stand aside while these issues are addressed by my department, but I wish to stress that this action, in no way seeks to draw a conclusion on these matters, Mr Speaker, but this is the appropriate action for me to take under the ministerial standards.

LAURA TINGLE: In a statement, Mr Tudge said he intended to submit written evidence to the inquiry that would contradict Ms Miller’s position.

The PM seemed to be very aware today that he needed to be seen to take these allegations very seriously. He announced that Vivienne Thom would be conducting the inquiry - the woman who ran the High Court inquiry into former Justice Dyson Heydon.

Standing Minister Tudge aside only added to the sense the Government is disintegrating around him with a growing list of departures ahead of next year’s election.

Late yesterday, former attorney-general Christian Porter announced, via Facebook, that he would not contest the next election.

FACEBOOK POST FROM CHRISTIAN PORTER: Even though I have experienced perhaps more of the harshness of modern politics than most, there are no regrets.

It’s now time to give more of what is left to those around me whose love has been unconditional.

LAURA TINGLE: Porter’s departure has been reported very much in terms of the allegations and controversy he has faced this year.

But the policy issues over which he presided are perhaps more important signposts to the history of this government, and the policy controversies - and approach to accountability - in which it has often been embroiled.

As minister for social services, he played a key role in establishing the controversial Robodebt scheme, which saw hundreds of thousands of people facing devastating claims of overclaiming welfare benefits.

Porter was occupying the office of attorney-general when the Government was later forced to concede that the scheme had ‘no legal basis’ and was ‘unlawful’. The government eventually repaid $720 million of the falsely raised debts

Also as attorney-general, Porter would not rule out prosecuting journalists, and sending them to jail, for publishing public interest stories.

He also made the decision to proceed with the prosecution of the man known as Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery. Witness K was the whistle-blower who revealed Australia had bugged a room in the offices of Timor Leste’s Prime Minister at the time the two countries were negotiating resource rights in the Timor Gap.

Last year, Porter used his national security powers to have the court hearing of this case held in the strictest secrecy.

KERRYN PHELPS: There is an urgent medical crisis in Australia's offshore detention centres.

LAURA TINGLE: In 2019, the government lost an historic vote when Labor and the crossbench forced through what was known as the so-called medevac laws - designed to more easily allow seriously ill asylum seekers to be evacuated from Australia’s offshore detention centres.

During that process, Christian Porter resisted attempts to have advice on the legislation from the Solicitor General tabled in the Parliament.

TONY SMITH, SPEAKER (2019): I'll advise the Attorney-General that, as Speaker, it's important I ensure, in this instance, all material available to me is also available to all members of the House.

LAURA TINGLE: After the 2019 election, Porter oversaw the repealing of those laws.

The former attorney-general also released the original proposal for religious freedom legislation - subsequently dumped.

And his proposed model for a national anti-corruption commission has been derided as a toothless tiger.

Late this afternoon, Health Minister Greg Hunt told Parliament he will be leaving Parliament at the election.

GREG HUNT, HEALTH MINISTER: On Sunday, they looked at me, and said, "Dad, this is your last chance to be a proper dad and it's time to come home, Dad.”

LAURA TINGLE: That’s a senior cabinet minister leaving, a former senior cabinet minister - once seen as a future PM - leaving, and another senior cabinet minister with his future under a cloud.

There are also seven other MPs leaving at a time when the Government has gone from eyeing seats it can win from Labor to having to defend seats across the country

In the PM’s home state of New South Wales, bitter divisions within the Liberal Party have seen pre-selections delayed for both House of Representatives and Senate seats.

Incumbency is supposed to give governments a political advantage. As this ugly political year ends and we approach a federal election campaign, that advantage is far from clear.

Kate Jenkins' Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces has been released. It is damning.
- 1 in 3 people in parliament experienced seuxal harrassment
- 1 per cent suffered attempted or actual sexual assault
- 77 per cent witnessed or experienced bullying

— Clare Armstrong (@ByClare) November 30, 2021

Liberal and Nationals MPs who have stated they are not standing in the 2022 federal election

Kevin Andrews (disendorsed by party) – Menzies Vic – Margin 7.0 LIB

George Christensen – Dawson Qld – Margin 14.6 NATS

Andrew Laming – Bowman Qld – Margin 10.2 LIB

Greg Hunt – Flinders Vic – Margin 5.6 LIB

Christian Porter – Pearce WA – Margin 5.2 LIB

Tony Smith – Casey Vic – Margin 4.6 LIB

Nicolle Flint – Boothby SA – Margin 1.4 LIB

John Alexander – Bennelong NSW – Margin 6.9 LIB

Steve Irons – Swan WA – Margin 3.2 LIB

Ken O'Dowd – Flynn Qld – Margin 8.7 NATS

Damian Drum – Nicholls Vic – Margin 20.0 NATS

Then there was this in the House of Representatives during Question Time on 2 December 2021…..

Mr BRENDAN O'CONNOR (Gorton) (14:02): My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday, Sky News reported two of the Prime Minister's best mates received $80,000 of taxpayer money, without a tender, to set up their own private sector quarantine business known as Quarantine Services Australia. Sky News also reported that Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo told business leaders that this was a really important project for the Prime Minister. Is Mr Pezzullo right?

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House, on a point of order?

Mr Dutton: There is an imputation that's implied quite clearly in the question that's been asked, and that is against the standing orders. That's the first point, Mr Speaker. If there are allegations to make, then those allegations should be put in another forum, not here in this House.

The SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business?

Mr Burke: Ministers are expected to be across media reports; that's in Practice. The question specifically goes to a media report and describes the source. It then refers to that particular payment being a priority for the Prime Minister as being attributed to the secretary of a department. It simply asks whether that is accurate. It goes no further than asking whether it was a really important project for the Prime Minister. So the extra layers that the Leader of the House is referring to are not in the question that was just asked.

Older Women's Network's letter to the editor: "...we are sick of being treated like we don’t matter. We are fed up with our lives being viewed as expendable"

 

"Not only are so many older people I know very anxious about catching COVID because we value our lives, we are sick of being treated like we don’t matter. We are fed up with our lives being viewed as expendable".
President of National OWN's Letter to https://t.co/eNKYO7IdVu pic.twitter.com/M1QjuGjMRa

— OWN NSW (@age_no_barrier) December 30, 2021

 

NSW Delta Variant Outbreak Update: Lives could have been saved if the NSW Government's Covid-19 Crisis Committee had followed the medical advice it received

After 16 June 2021 when the Delta Variant Outbreak began, the NSW Coalition Government’s COVID-19 Crisis Committee was composed of up to seven permanent members – these included then Premer Gladys Berejiklian, then Deputy-Premier John Barilaro, then Treasurer & now NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, the Minister for Health and Medical Research Brad Hazzard, Member for Penrith & now Deputy-Premier Paul Toole and, the then members of government now ministers in the Perrottet Government Victor Dominello and Stuart Ayres .The state’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kerry Chant advises/makes recommendations to this committee.

It seems what many have long suspected about this committee is true……..

News.com.au, 22 November 2021:

Newly released documents reveal the NSW government ignored health advice to apply the same coronavirus lockdown rules across all of Sydney.

An email sent by NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant to Health Minister Brad Hazzard on August 14 showed she recommended “consistent measures across greater metropolitan Sydney”.

But the extra-tough lockdown rules in Sydney’s west and southwest were not brought in line with the rest of the city until September 20.

A virus expert has said lives could have been saved if the harsher rules were implemented across Sydney instead of just in select areas.

Former premier Gladys Berejiklian, who was leading the state’s pandemic response at the time, consistently argued she was relying on health advice in decisions around the lockdown.

A western Sydney opposition politician said the email proved locals “were right to feel targeted” and called the revelations “absolutely horrific”.

“The Government hated it when we pointed to a Tale of Two Cities. They accused us of being political – evidence we were speaking the truth,” Lakemba MP Jihad Dib said on Monday.

“When the health advice said one thing, the Government did the other. We were right to feel targeted.”

Sydney’s latest lockdown began in the last weekend of June, after an airport breach caused the Delta variant of the coronavirus to spread in the city.

Although the outbreak began in the eastern suburbs, the spread soon got worse in the city’s west.

By the second week of July, police had begun a crackdown in the western suburbs to make sure locals adhered to the lockdown.

And by the time Dr Chant wrote her August 14 email, the rules had tightened several times in an expanding area of western and southwestern Sydney where the virus was spreading the fastest.

Among the harsher rules was a ban on leaving hotspot LGAs, whereas people in other parts of the city were allowed more freedom of movement.

But the top doctor recommended the rules be made consistent.

“Implement consistent measures across greater metropolitan Sydney with outdoor masks, consistent 5km rule and authorised workers only,” she wrote in a list of recommendations.

The email was written at a time when Covid-19 infections were rising fast.

“Case numbers are high and escalating and likely to reach 1000 cases a day very quickly ... this is the worst outbreak in Australia during the pandemic,” Dr Chant wrote.

The first recommendation contained in the email was to “intensify the action in western Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountains where case numbers are escalating”.

The same recommendation was made for rural and regional Aboriginal communities, where Dr Chant also wished to see the vaccine rollout prioritised.

She also recommended further restrictions such as a limit on who could take advantage of child care services, closing retail stores further, and reducing “non-essential activity in manufacturing/construction”.

Other recommendations in the email included “1 hour of exercise per day”, “mandate vaccination in aged care, disability, and health care” and “urgently extend the isolation payments to all LGAs of concern”.

Dr Chant also recommended locking down regional NSW, advice which the government heeded within hours of receiving her email.

An epidemiologist shown the health advice on Monday said it was difficult to say exactly what the chief health officer was advocating for based purely on her email.

University of South Australia epidemiology professor Adrian Esterman said it was “ambiguous” as to whether Dr Chant called for western Sydney’s rules to apply across the city.

“If I was chief health officer, I would have wanted to come down hard across the whole of greater Sydney,” he said.

“They would have had a much better chance of driving down numbers, and secondly, they would have avoided stigmatising people in those western suburbs.”

Professor Esterman also said lives could have been saved if all of Sydney had been locked down harder.

“Of course, if you cut down cases you cut down on deaths,” he said.

“Governments have terrible decisions to make, do we close up and kill the economy? Or do we open and accept there are going to be deaths and people who get seriously ill? It‘s a horrible equation.”.

Dr Chant has previously testified to a parliamentary committee she would give a mix of verbal and written advice to the government.

The government had kept most of her health advice secret until Labor MPs recently managed to access parts of it through an order in parliament…..

The curfew was in place in the western Sydney hotspots from August 23 to September 25, and prevented people in those areas from leaving their homes between 9pm and 5am.

Another email released to parliament showed Dr Chant had recommended a curfew as early as July 29, although she specified it would be to achieve a “messaging effect” and underscore the importance of complying with the other rules that were in place.

“A curfew should be considered for the messaging effect as we need to signal the absolute urgency of the current situation with strong compliance presence,” Dr Chant wrote in the email to Mr Hazzard…..