It may or may not have been Defence Minister Peter Dutton who outed “Psycho” Morrison in last week’s texts, but what is clear is that Dutton has just done the same in policy terms. Bernard Keane:
Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel will be sent into aged care homes suffering acute staffing shortages, the prime minister announced this afternoon, three weeks after employers and unions begged the government to intervene to find a way to offset the loss of a quarter of available shifts due to the impact of COVID on workforce availability.
…In announcing the commitment, Morrison repeated that the ADF was not a “surrogate workforce for the aged care sector”.
Morrison has been opposed to the deployment and previously commented that the ADF “can’t just make those problems go away” in the sector. However, he was forced to shift his position after Peter Dutton flagged support for the idea late last week, leading to tensions between the prime minister and the man now being regularly spoken of as his replacement.
Today’s announcement by Morrison completes his backflip and signals a win for Dutton, who will reap any political benefit from being seen to help address the aged care emergency. It will also alleviate some political pressure for the government, which faced a difficult parliamentary session with the issue of aged care deaths hanging over it.
So, it has happened over the “Psycho’s” dead body. There is no issue upon which his judgement is catastrophically lacking.
Except one: being hawkish on China. Yet, revealed today, is that may also be a part of the Psycho’s sectarian sleaze cult:
Prime Minister Scott Morrison kept in weekly contact with Donald Trump’s secretary of state, and fellow evangelical Christian, Mike Pompeo, with a “faith connection” between the two forming a key part of their close relationship.
The revelation of the little known arrangement, in a report by The Australian’s Paul Kelly over the weekend, raises questions about Pompeo’s potential influence on Australia’s foreign policy positions, particularly in relation to China.
Kelly’s report, drawn from a new book he has written, quoted Morrison saying that his relationship with the Trump administration was “deeply rooted in my relationship with Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo”. The PM and Pompeo were in contact “weekly, not necessarily on the phone, but we were regular correspondents”. And the point of nexus? “We’re evangelical Christians,” Morrison said.
The assertion puts paid to the idea that Morrison keeps his religion and politics separate. The revelation also underlines the secretive nature of Morrison’s conduct of national affairs. Who knew that the Australian prime minister and the apocalyptic Christian Pompeo were email and phone buddies during a critical phase of Australia’s relationship with China?
On the one hand, who cares! This is the one policy area that the “Psycho” got right. All along I have argued it was much more luck than good management but credit where it is due.
On the other hand, now that the heavy lifting of breaking the relationship has been done, do we really want a psycho sleaze cult making foreign policy decisions based upon the idea that the geopolitical ground must be prepared for the Second Coming?
“Psycho” Morrison’s sectarian sleaze cult (PSSSC) is still hard at work blowing up the government on every other front. The total overreach of the following must be giving strategists nightmares:
Scott Morrison has signalled he will seek to legislate the religious discrimination bill “in the near future”, as mounting internal opposition leaves securing Labor support the most viable path to pass the reform.
Morrison appealed for support for the “important bill” on Monday, telling reporters in Canberra that it is “something that should unite the parliament, not divide it”.
On Friday Labor MPs and senators on two committees joined the government in calling for the bill to pass after a series of minor and technical changes. Labor is using the wait for these amendments to stall finalising its position.
The Coalition faces fierce internal resistance to the bill, with the member for Bass, Bridget Archer, telling Guardian Australia on Friday she can’t support it in its current form, and senator Andrew Bragg seeking protections for teachers and removal of the controversial statements of belief clause.
Morrison has committed to preventing the expulsion of LGBTQ+ students, with varying levels of support from government MPs. It was enough to win Angie Bell’s vote, but Dave Sharma has also expressed concerns about teachers, while Katie Allen has investigated amending the statement of belief clause so it doesn’t override state laws.
Bin it. The PMSSC is clearly chomping at the bit to persecute heretics. Another outlet has jumped the shark:
The principal of a private Sydney school has defended its “statement of faith” that lists same-sex relationships and transgender identity alongside abusive relationships as “not acceptable to God”, saying critics had taken it out of context.
How does a Liberal government promote this atavistic, illiberal trash? Only a mind deeply marinated in moral hypocrisy is capable of it.
And it’s onwards and downwards from there. As he pursues the medieval persecution of social freedoms, “Psycho” Morrison has ruled out any move for a federal ICAC:
Scott Morrison has broken a major promise made three years ago, with plans for a federal anti-corruption watchdog sent to the scrap heap.
Attorney-General Michaelia Cash on Monday confirmed the legislation was off the agenda until after the election, prioritising the passage of religious discrimination and amendments to privacy laws to help combat online abuse.
It came with the usual gaslighting about getting it done but it’s clearly dead. Albo should and is taking it on with gusto.
And while the nation’s politics burns at the “Psycho’s” stake, Liberal iconoclast, Julia Banks, has reappeared:
On Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison tried a similar stunt and visited a women’s hairdressing salon on the Mornington Peninsula, where he washed the hair of a young woman, reportedly a first-year apprentice, and gave her a head massage. He then asked the female hairdressers gathered around him if he should ask the woman about her weekend and do some gossiping.
Whatever its purpose, the visit didn’t work. His remarks suggested a dated and shallow understanding of women, and the images of the Prime Minister’s hands massaging the apprentice’s scalp and temples stirred a visceral reaction in thousands of us, including me. Not in a good way.
How out of touch does a “Psycho” need to be to think that groping some trapped woman’s head will get him votes? This out of touch:
Brittany Higgins has revealed she “hasn’t been invited” to the Parliament’s historic formal apology to victims of alleged sexual harassment, assault and bullying in the building.
I am very much looking forward to the Higgins/Tame double team at the press club tomorrow. I hope they call for “Psycho” Morrison’s resignation. They could end him.
Australia is being dictated to by a loony sectarian sleaze cult that inherently contradicts the most fundamental tenets of our modern, secular state. Any Liberal happily sharing the podium with the PMSSC should be voted out with prejudice.
The question now is: will the LNP do the right thing and put Peter Dutton is before the election? I see no downside to it (other than Peter Dutton himself). Though he most assuredly may not win, it would at least make clear that the party retains some liberal values and agrees with the people that “Psycho” Morrison’s sectarian sleaze cult should be carried out by the white coats.
I humbly suggest that is why Labor is in hot pursuit of him:
Only one way Peter Dutton can win his case: get another colleague to admit that they were the source for comments about the Prime Minister. If not you, Mr Dutton, which of your colleagues? Until then who has most to gain from undermining further a flailing PM?
— Bob Carr (@bobjcarr) February 6, 2022
And the questions have begun:
On the issue of the Prime Minister’s leadership, Mr Dutton said he has “not at all” lost confidence in Scott Morrison.
“I have been around since the Howard days … about every election the Coalition has been behind at this point in the cycle. I honestly believe, particularly on the issue of the economy, the management of the economy and notional security, Scott Morrison … outstrips Anthony Albanese any day of the week.”
Asked if he was positioning himself to challenge Mr Morrison for the leadership, Mr Dutton replied: “100 per cent no.”
Mwahaha.
