The Liberal Party of Australia is now taking the lead in destroying its own government. Obviously, this will strike the rational as strange. But, if we understand the psychology of it, it actually makes perfect sense.
PM Scott Morrison’s political rise has been fatefully exposed this week by texts from his own cabinet describing him as a “complete psycho” and “fraud”. Such a career path will have left a trail of abused and enraged Liberal Party members in its wake. Now armed with the knowledge that “it was him not me”, any confusion that these Morrison victims had about the causes of their distress will congeal into deeply personal, righteous and irrepressible anger.
To wit, after “Psycho” Morrison gaslighted the NSW branch of the party with allegations of factionalism yesterday. Instead of buckling under, it has exploded in rage:
“Was he looking in a mirror when he said that?” asked one of them. Some are in despair at the state of the Liberals in the Prime Minister’s home state of NSW. Some are in outright fury. And many of them, from the right and the left, think Morrison only has himself to blame.
Those texts, reported by the Ten Network, may never be verified. Federal cabinet ministers deny sending them. But nobody doubts the derision for Morrison in some quarters on his home turf. Some Liberals simply cannot stand him.
…the NSW Liberals dislike being told what to do by Morrison. They like it even less when the orders come from the Prime Minister’s proxy, Alex Hawke, the Immigration Minister and numbers man at the top of the “soft right” in NSW.
…The result is a quagmire so bad it could cost Morrison the election. In a game of bluff, the Hawke camp has held out against choosing candidates for some of the seats the Liberals must win if they want to hold power. Because they will not do what he wants, he has denied them what they need.
These are the most dedicated Liberal Party supporters in the country talking about their own PM. What was the confusion of the abused is now the action of the enraged:
Members of the party’s state executive in NSW are building pressure on Mr Morrison’s key ally, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke, to end his refusal to hold formal meetings to approve candidates in marginal seats.
…Liberals from all sides of the party blamed Mr Hawke on Thursday for refusing to attend nomination review committees over the last six months to clear candidates so their names could be put to branch members for party preselection ballots.
One Liberal said the state executive had tried for more than a year to vet candidates but had been repeatedly stymied by Mr Hawke in his role as Mr Morrison’s representative.
“At every roadblock there was Alex Hawke, like an Eastern bloc border guard,” he said.
The delay has infuriated Liberals who want decisions on candidates for seats including Parramatta in western Sydney, Dobell on the central coast, Eden-Monaro in the south of the state and Hughes in southern Sydney.
Malcolm Turnbull added to the mounting conflagration:
Speaking on the ABC’s 7.30 program, Mr Turnbull said the brutal character assessment was no surprise.
“I wasn’t surprised by the content. I was a little bit surprised they found their way into the public domain,” he said.
“Clearly, whoever authorised [Network 10 journalist] Mr [Peter] van Onselen to release that did not have Scott Morrison’s best interests at heart,” he said.
Ms Berejiklian has issued a statement declaring she “does not recall” sending or receiving the messages but failed to unequivocally deny she was part of the conversation.
Ths history is there for all to read:
The ugly entrails of the NSW Liberals may be arcane to ordinary voters struggling with the pandemic crisis and all its consequences. But they say a good deal about the PM, his political style and his present position.
Morrison’s activism reflects his personality, his experience from his state director days, and the fact that for various reasons, including bitter hatreds and structural problems, the NSW organisation is leaderless.
His faction’s push on preselections is against democracy in the party. It has also operated, as it’s turned out, against Morrison’s own interests, because it has left the Liberals badly prepared in a state where, on present calculations, they need to win — not just retain — seats to stay in government.
At the last election, Morrison’s meddling in preselections did not end well. He saved Craig Kelly, who later defected, became a vocal anti-vaxxer and is now the nominal leader of Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party.
He made the captain’s pick of Warren Mundine, one-time national president of the Labor Party, as the candidate in Gilmore, a seat the Liberals should have won but didn’t.
Morrison does not make sound judgements. He gaslights to abuse, confuse and dominate. Thus, he is always working against his own interests in the long run. It’s only that in the backstabbing world of politics, where ethics are already short on the ground, it takes longer for the “psycho” to be unmasked.
Commentators are still politely saying that Morrison can fix this and win. They are wrong.
What we are witnessing is a giant and public Liberal Party gestalt session as its body politic convulsively coughs to expel malignant cancer. It won’t stop and will very likely get worse.
If the Liberal Party fails to disgorge the tumor before May, it is as certain as anything in the history of politics that the country will do it for them.
