Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison creates his own personal 'Canberra Bubble'

It is looking more and more as though Scott Morrison is intent on surrounding himself with those that can be relied upon to think exactly as he does on any topic.

Encouraging a bubble of 'yes men' à la Trump, thereby discouraging alternative perspectives and eliminating dissent.

The Australian, 7 December 2019:

The Prime Minister has assembled a team to drain the swamp his way. Scott Morrison is building a new power bloc around his leadership, dismantling the old “Canberra club” with a network of friends, confidants, bureaucrats and trusted allies tasked with reshaping Australia’s political, cultural and policy direction….

While not publicly visible or involved in the day-to-day running of the Prime Minister’s office, Morrison’s two close friends outside of politics, David Gazard and Scott Briggs, are perhaps as influential as anyone.

Central to Morrison’s strategy has been the purge of the public service…..

Leading the reform agenda across the whole of government is the new Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet head Phil Gaetjens, Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo, Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy, Infrastructure and Transport tsar Simon Atkinson, Social Services chief Kathryn Campbell, and David Fredericks, tapped to head the new Department of Industry, Energy, Science and Resources. The links to Morrison are as stark as some of the links these new mandarins have to each other.

Gaetjens was installed as Treasury secretary from his role as then-treasurer Morrison’s chief of staff, the same job he held in Peter Costello’s office. The two would speak regularly and became close. Gaetjens represented the first move in the changing of the guard when he was installed as DPMC head after Martin Parkinson was told his term would not be extended. As part of this week’s APS clean-out, Parkinson’s wife Heather was one of the five secretaries told their services were no longer required…..

The Australian, 6 December 2019:

Mr Morrison retains a tight-knit group of friends and advisers, led by businessman Scott Briggs and former Liberal staffer David Gazard. Yellow Brick Road chairman Mark Bouris, Macquarie Group managing director Shemara-Wikramanayake, former prime minister John Howard, political strategist Lynton Crosby, former business colleague Adrian Harrington, former NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione, former Liberal MP Warwick Smith and developer Harry Triguboff are considered key sounding boards for Mr Morrison. His former flatmates Stuart Robert and Steve Irons, both MPs promoted by Mr Morrison, are also close to the Prime Minister….

A senior government source said “there is no Big Bang” but the “principles and direction have been set for people to get on board or get out”.

“Some agencies will resist, citing the need for special treatment, but they’ll more often than not find themselves in the same position as the goat which is tethered in the Tyrannosaurus Rex enclosure,” the source said.

Key department chiefs who have been promoted have direct links to Mr Morrison and with each other.

They include Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Phil Gaetjens, Home Affairs boss Mike Pezzullo, Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy, Infrastructure and Transport tsar Simon Aktinson, Social Services head Kathryn Campbell, and David Fredericks, tapped to head the new Department of Industry, Energy, Science and Resources…..

The Weekend Australian can reveal that many of the new senior mandarins have close links with Mr Morrison and personal connections through previous roles in Treasury, Defence and politics.

Mr Pezzullo, Mr Atkinson, Mr Kennedy, Mr Fredericks and Productivity Commission chairman Michael Brennan have previous experience working together. Mr Morrison worked closely with Mr Pezzullo and Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell in setting up and operating Operation Sovereign Borders.

Ms Campbell — a senior Army Reserves officer who worked across multiple departments — also had contact with Mr Morrison in delivering the Coalition’s major welfare reforms.

The Power List also reveals the inner workings of Mr Morrison’s office, with Dr Kunkel and Mr Finkelstein leading a team of close advisers including Mr Shearer, head of communications Andrew Carswell, Liberal Party federal director Andrew Hirst, national security adviser Michelle Chan and executive officer Nico Louw.

Insiders said Dr Kunkel, who ran Mr Howard’s cabinet policy unit before shifting to the private sector, acted as the “gatekeeper” and “decision maker”, while Mr Finkelstein took charge of “networking, speaking to stakeholders and keeping in touch with backbenchers and ministers’ offices”.

Financial Review, 6 December 2019:

Shortly after the federal election, I had a conversation with a figure at the very centre of the government. As we raked over where the election had left the political conversation, I noted the Prime Minister’s repeated emphasis on getting on with delivering services to Australians in his public statements.

Did this suggest that a politician so driven by marketing memes had detected a weariness with the ideological wars of politics among disconnected voters, and recognised political self-interest in shaping both the government’s message, and its agenda, around the basics of government service delivery? Did this mean the government might abandon some of its ideological warfare against institutions?

“Don’t be ridiculous,” this person snorted. “If anything, this government is more ideologically driven than Abbott. They want to win the culture wars they see in education, in the public service, in all of our institutions, and they’ll come for the ABC too, of course. There will be a big cleanout at the top of the public service, but Morrison will wait for a while to do that. They believe the left has been winning the war for the last twenty years and are determined to turn the tables. Morrison will just be craftier about the way he goes about it.”

Is Morrison building such a large political fortress so that he can refuse to acknowledge climate change for his entire prime ministership, whilst at the same time merging church and state where ever and whenever possible?

Is he intent on becoming an autocratic president in practice rather than a democratic prime minister?

Does he intend to forcefully shape Australia into his own personal image of what New Jerusalem looks like?