Murdoch-News Corp newspaper front pages may be shouting support for all things Scott Morrison on most days. However a little subversion loiters within.......
Weekend Australian, 19 January 2019, p.20:
Here are 10 missteps in
the short time Morrison has been in the job that could have been avoided if
only he had adopted the Costanza approach and done the opposite of his
political instincts.
1. It started just days
before taking over from Malcolm Turnbull. Standing in the prime ministerial
courtyard, asked whether he had any ambitions to lead the Liberal Party,
Morrison threw his arm around Turnbull and declared he was ambitious for his
boss. Presumably the
journalist asking the question had heard the same things I had: that Morrison
and his lieutenants had been canvassing with colleagues whether he could come
through the middle as a viable third candidate. It wasn’t a good look
in retrospect.
2. Very early on as
Prime Minister, Morrison decided it might be a good idea to start a debate
about moving the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The storm of controversy that
followed — international condemnation and threats from Indonesia to scuttle
free trade talks — distracted voters in the days before voters in Wentworth
went to the polls. The Liberals lost the seat, and Morrison was left to
patch up a mess of his own making.
3. Speaking of
Wentworth, the Prime Minister decided to weigh in on the party preselection and
call for a woman to represent the Liberal Party. Only he did so after nominations had closed, and he
didn’t do it publicly, which meant his support wasn’t able to attract better
candidates. And a man won preselection anyway, leaving Morrison to pose
for the cameras rather awkwardly with someone he’d effectively tried to prevent
from winning the preselection.
4. Social media can be
dangerous for all of us, but a
religiously conservative prime minister probably shouldn’t post rap music by
Fatman Scoop to play over video of his parliamentary team without first
contemplating where the rap lyrics might go. Into obscene territory was
the answer, which is why the video was removed and an apology was issued.
5. When calibrating his
frontbench, Morrison decided to return close mate and political ally Stuart
Robert. But, shortly
after, the returned minister (who previously had been forced to resign) was
again immersed in controversy, including having to pay back an internet bill
in the tens of thousands. If Morrison had done the opposite he would
have been able to accommodate new talent and avoided an unnecessary controversy
distracting the government.
6. Deciding not to speak out early
during the religious freedom debate and defend children and teachers from
discrimination left Morrison looking out of touch. It also offended many
of his moderate colleagues, weakening him internally. It played into Labor
criticisms that the new PM was too busy placating the hard Right in his party
to appeal to the political mainstream.
7. Speaking of which,
Morrison intervened to save maverick backbencher Craig Kelly from a preselection
threat and in the process (to make it look as if he weren’t intervening
specifically to save Kelly) he ensured that all sitting MPs in NSW were
renominated. The same thing had happened in Victoria. However, it’s pretty hard to then claim you are
taking serious steps to address the problem of so few female MPs when a prime
minister intervenes to ensure all those blokes get automatically preselected
without a democratic process.
8. Turnbull made the
mistake of dumping the national energy guarantee, but when Morrison had the chance to bring it back he squibbed it,
and in effect he now will go into the election campaign without a serious
policy for addressing carbon emissions.
Not reviving the NEG also put a wedge between Morrison and his new party
deputy, Josh Frydenberg, who as environment and energy minister had crafted the
policy.
9. Refusing to engage with
questions from Labor as to why Morrison was Prime Minister and why Turnbull was
gone kept the issue alive. Labor exploited the non-answers, continuing
to ask the question, and it didn’t take long before journalists started doing
the same. Morrison should have done the opposite and provided a detailed
explanation early to avoid the wound continuing to bleed.
10. Finally, we all know
that Morrison created a hard-man image for himself as immigration minister
stopping the boats, which raises the question: why did he feel the need to
suddenly shift from that to goofy Aussie bloke, putting an upturned empty beer
glass on his head after a skol? It’s all part of his attempt to look like an
ordinary knockabout bloke. As
one of his colleagues told me: “I’m not looking for a new friend, certainly not
in my PM. I just want a competent leader.” The ex-marketing man should have
known better.
We haven’t traversed all
the missteps since August last year, and we don’t want to be unfair and blame
Morrison for things he has blamed his department for, such as the Photoshopped
white sneakers on his Christmas card photo.
Equally, missteps such
as the appointment of his former chief of staff to the independent position of
Treasury secretary or opposing the banking royal commission for so long aren’t
mistakes made during his time as Prime Minister.
The remarkable thing
about the list above is the short time frame in which it has accumulated.
Morrison hasn’t even been Prime Minister for five months. If he loses in May he
will be one of the country’s shortest serving prime ministers,…… [my yellow highlighting]
