The loon pond has had enough of its PM:
A right-wing backlash against Scott Morrison is growing, with Sky News host Peta Credlin joining the pile on that already includes fellow commentators Andrew Bolt, Chris Kenny and Janet Albrechtsen.
With pressure mounting on the prime minister due to poor polling numbers and an election due within months, Ms Credlin – who is Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff – wrote that Mr Morrison needs to ‘be better’.
In a crushing blow, she said ‘the government originally elected to be the antithesis of Rudd-Gillard-Rudd has become Labor-lite’.
She called on Mr Morrison to give voters ‘a reason to vote for you’, saying his leadership of the Liberal Party was leaving some people ‘politically homeless’.
Here is how the PM sees “being better”:
Get you a Prime Minister who can do both (sing the same verse of April Sun In Cuba twice) pic.twitter.com/AQ8at4Gzpb
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) February 11, 2022
That the PM has no idea how stupid he looks is no surprise. He has no empathy and therefore no access to the way other people react to his stunts.
Same goes for his co-dependent marrriage as Jen Morrison showed us how she puts up with Scott:
“I just found it a little bit disappointing, because we were welcoming her in our home,” she said.
“I just wish the focus had been on all the incredible people coming in. I respect people that want to change things, stand up for their beliefs, and are strong, but I still think there are manners and respect.”
In the days follow the exchange at The Lodge in January, Tame explained her thoughts on the now viral moment.
“The survival of abuse culture is dependent on submissive smiles and self-defeating surrenders,” she posted on Twitter.
“It is dependent on hypocrisy. My past is only relevant to the extent that I have seen — in fact I have worn — the consequences of civility for the sake of civility.”
Nuff said.
All attempts at “being better” are being mercilessly destroyed:
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s apology to abuse victims in Parliament House this week was not supposed to happen.
Until just hours before the parliamentary apology was delivered, the prime minister intended for it to come from the presiding officers alone.
In the speech on Tuesday morning, Morrison apologised to all former parliamentary staff and others who had experienced bullying, harassment and sexual assault. He directly addressed former government staffer Brittany Higgins, who was watching from the public gallery and whose alleged rape by a former colleague in a ministerial office in 2019 prompted an overhaul of procedures and a national reckoning on attitudes to women, as well as the apology itself. Her former colleague, Bruce Lehrmann, has pleaded not guilty to rape.
Morrison said he was personally sorry for “the terrible things that happened here”. He also abandoned his practice of referring to Higgins only by her first name, this time calling her “Ms Higgins”.
But The Saturday Paper has confirmed that Morrison’s speech – and the one that followed from Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese – was only added to the proceedings hours before it was made. It appears Morrison decided to speak to avoid Albanese upstaging him.
Which has now led to this:
Prime Minister’s Scott Morrison’s apology to Brittany Higgins in Parliament this week could contribute to an indefinite delay to her alleged rapist’s criminal trial slated to be heard in the ACT Supreme Court in June.
Lawyers for the man accused of raping Ms Higgins said the comments were “extraordinarily prejudicial” to their client, Bruce Lehrmann, and that they would “be seeking a stay” on the criminal proceedings.
“The Prime Minister has mocked the rule of the law and the fundamental presumption of innocence upon which our criminal justice system is premised,” solicitor Warwick Korn told AFR Weekend.
“Being better” also has various MPs tearing each other’s limbs off over Morrison’s poofter-bashing legislation:
NSW Liberal MP Dr Fiona Martin, a trained psychologist who treated trans kids, has told colleagues that she simply realised she had to be able to “sleep at night”.
…It was the biggest backbench revolt since the 1980s – five Liberal MPs crossing the floor in a marathon 22-hour sitting.
But her brave call has now sparked anger and bitter recriminations and claims that she and other MPs “betrayed”, “misled” and “shafted” the Prime Minister in late talks.
Queensland Liberal MP Warren Entsch has revealed the inside story of the dramatic meeting in the Prime Minister’s office before the MPs voted with Labor.
…Dr Martin has told colleagues she decided on the floor of Parliament what she would do without informing the Prime Minister directly.
But she insists she never assured the Prime Minister she would vote for the bill and remained silent in the meeting.
Maybe that’s because she didn’t fancy being gaslighted and bullied so she turned the tables on “Psycho” Morrison.
More to the point, what kind of insightless dill would keep the story going via backgrounding against their own party members? Not least doing so by painting Morrison as the victim of lies? I mean, seriously.
According to Peter Hartcher, it’s not going to change:
Dutton is the only potential challenger, and he’s not planning to challenge before the election. So Morrison can survive until election day.
This morning’s polls are grim but perhaps not grim enough to tip the scales:
Though ANU is not looking too good:
Roughly one in three Australians have confidence in the Morrison government, which is the lowest approval since the 2019-20 summer bushfires, according to a survey.
The latest instalment of the Australian National University’s research of wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic found that in January satisfaction in Australia’s direction and the federal government both dropped.
The longitudinal survey of 3,472 Australians was conducted in the final two weeks of January, as the Omicron wave and eased restrictions resulted in some days with more than 100,000 new Covid cases, and new records for the deadliest days.
The ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods found 34.5% of adult Australians had confidence or were “very confident” in the federal government, down from a peak of 60.6% in May 2020.
And, of course, Morrison will have played some role in the NSW Liberal drubbing as well:
New South Wales voters have given the Coalition state government a bloody nose after four by-elections were held yesterday.
The Liberals suffered a loss in their stronghold of Bega for the first time since the seat was established in 1988.
So “being better” looks a lot more like getting all covered in shit:
Who was the Federal MP found comatose and soiled in his office last night while parliament was sitting? #auspol
— CoryBernardi.com.au (@corybernardi) February 10, 2022
More:
After news.com.au dutifully commenced the grim task of getting to the bottom of this unsavoury rumour, we found the MP who knows how the rumour started but insisted no one lost control of their bladder.
“He didn’t wet his pants,” a Liberal MP said.
“There was no wee. Not that I am aware of. He was just asleep in his office.”
An appropriate enough response to Morrison’s amazing mess.
