Tin PM loses the suburbs

Advertisement

A few in the press today describe Scott Morrison as having a “tin ear” following yesterday’s latest installment of the meltdown of his government. Christian Porter is sueing the ABC and will come back to work to do half of his job. Morrison himself refused to attend the rallies destroying his government and then dropped another clangor, resentfully praising democracy, not the cause of the marches:

…not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets.

What does the PM think listeners will recall from a comment like that? It’s evasive and passive-aggressive. All they will feel is that the PM would very much like to riddle with bullets the women protestors beating down his door.

Describing Morrison as “tin eared” doesn’t cut it. Tony Abbott had a “tin ear” with his monarchy worship. But he was still a warm people person with a common touch. John Howard was stubborn and occasionally overplayed his hand versus the electorate. But he was human and capable of genuine comfort for the distressed:

Advertisement
Bushfire comfort from JH

Bushfire comfort from JH

The problem for the Morrison Government is that it confronts an immense human tragedy of its own making yet its head is incapable of humanity at all. Compare JH to bushfire comfort with SM uncomfort:

Advertisement

Morrison does not have a tin ear, he is made entirely of tin: a robot made of politics. This is the very last thing that rioting women want or need to address their movement for change. Men, who are mostly still chivalrous at heart, are turning off as well:

A tin man for all

A tin man for all

So the movement will keep growing for this reason alone. Because Morrison is psychologically unable to engage with and address it. To wit:

Advertisement

Several Liberals believe the government has lost control of the crisis and are worried how it will end. The latest Newspoll showed Labor leading the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis by 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

Initially, the Coalition thought the anger would be confined to tertiary educated women but it has “cut through” to other demographics, including suburbia, said a source.

The Liberals now believe the polls will be bad for some time.

If by “some time” they mean until the next election then bingo! The scandal is wildly out of control and very soon it will be burning in the bush as well, if not already, as the Barnaby Joyce missive recently suggested.

The simple truth is this. The nation requires moral leadership but the more the Tin PM speaks, the more he becomes the center of the problem.

Advertisement

I noted last year after the bushfires that Labor should seek to put Morrison into human territory whenever and wherever possible to expose his disassociative disorder. It turns out that all the ALP needed to do is watch as the Tin PM marched to his own doom, wobbly limbs bursting eardrums as they screech for oil.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.