On 60 Minutes last night, all those too curious to avoid tuning in witnessed a tried and tested political marketing ploy. Scott Morrison, facing accusations of being a psycho and having a general lack of human-like traits, desperately needed an image reset.
Enter Jenny Morrison.
It’s the classic “wheel in the wife” strategy, where a political partner is brought in to normalise the PM and provide a character witness to say, hey, he’s not so bad after all. But just how have the spouses through Australia’s political history tackled the role? There are a few different approaches…
The humanising spouse
Last night Jenny Morrison provided a “woman’s touch” to soften Morrison’s image as a calculated and ruthless political player, and to say things Morrison simply couldn’t. In a message to the “quiet Australians” who probably aren’t as enamoured of Grace Tame’s side-eye as some, Jenny lamented her lack of manners. She took the blame for the Hawaii decisions and and rationalised Morrison’s infamous “Jenny has a way of explaining things comment” after the Brittany Higgins rape allegations.
The last time we saw a PM and their partner on 60 Minutes it was Julia Gillard and Tim Mathieson. About a year into her prime ministership, Gillard — our first and only female prime minister — and Mathieson sat down so Australians could get to know the so-called first bloke. Although apparently it wasn’t easy to get them into the studio, the interview served to unravel some of the mystery surrounding Gillard’s private life, and softened her image amid “absurd” gossip about their relationship.
Power couples
Australia has seen a number of prime ministerial marriages where the wife is just as qualified as the man in the top job, if not more so.
Take Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull. A politician in her own right as the former lord mayor of Sydney, she has held a range of prominent positions in a long career. During Turnbull’s prime ministership they occasionally did media interviews together, but for the most part it was just loving, respectful mentions by Turnbull of his stalwart, smart wife.
Or John and Janette Howard: always at John’s side on the campaign trail, she was a political force. Although she largely kept silent publicly, Howard biographer Pru Goward said she “lives and breathes politics”. She apparently played an active role in Howard’s deliberations and electoral work.
And then there was Kevin Rudd and Therese Rein. Rein was a successful entrepreneur, and was the first PM’s spouse to stay in the workforce throughout the gig. She was a loyal and consistent spouse, and was arguably more popular than her husband in the end.
Going back in time a bit, Gough and Margaret Whitlam were the original political power couple. The Whitlams stuck together through door-knocking in his early campaigns, all the way to the top job in Canberra. She was the first Australian political wife to openly give her views and appear heavily in campaigns.
Invisible wives
We don’t know much about Annita Keating or Margie Abbott — whether because of a hatred of politics or of the spotlight they elected to stay behind the scenes. Another fairly quiet wife was Hazel Hawke, although she probably falls under the “long-suffering” category given the long-running affairs of husband Bob.
Where’s the wife?
Perhaps part of the strategy of centring Jenny in this campaign is to highlight the fact that Anthony Albanese is not married. While people continue to wonder who Albanese is, he doesn’t have a wife to wheel out to explain that he is human after all.
At the closing of 60 Minutes last night an Albanese profile was promised for the coming weeks. If he’s looking to capitalise on the same strategy as Morrison, maybe he’ll debut his new partner. After all, a loving spouse never goes astray on the campaign trail. Apparently.
Is bringing out the spouse a fair enough ploy or does it make you feel a little ill? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
I remember when 60 Minutes was a hard hitting current affairs program. Now it’s just delivering Liberal party propaganda. Rather tacky imo.
Did anybody watch it? I don’t know anyone who did. imagine watching that sort of content, sandwiched with gambling, and sale-priced TV adverts?
There is no precedent for the Morrison version. Jenny made the political points, Morrison played the ukulele. The kids were collateral damage. Social services should investigate.
In the excerpts I saw on breakfast TV the offspring appeared to be as comfortable as hostages at the ukulele solo. It was too hard to focus on Jenny Morrison as my attention was diverted to the frozen smirk parked beside her.
Poor Karl Stefanovic, his contract must demand he participate in such naffness.
Interesting that you see Karl Stefanovic as a victim here. Is it certain he was not actively involved in contriving this nauseating farrago? Might it even have been his idea from the start? Has anyone checked the ukelele for his fingerprints?
Participate in naffness? Naffness is Karl’s middle name. As well as a few others.
“Smarter than a Peter Dutton. More animated than a lump of coal. Able to leap poll deficits in a single bound…… Why, it’s SuperMarm.”
Another category is The Stand By Your Man political wife who is wheeled out to stand by her husband, hold hands and smile for pictures, typically in a pleasant domestic setting, after the husband-politician has been found in an scandalous, embarrassing or compromising extra-marital relationship. I’ve never seen this done with the sexes reversed i.e. a female politician. The purpose is to show, or at least pretend, that the marriage will survive and the wife has not gone to stay with her mother or consult lawyers about divorce. This helps to persuade the public that whatever happened was not really a big deal; if she’s not bothered why should anyone else be? It is generally impossible to know whether the wife in these cases is acting simply out the goodness of her heart or instead has extracted a suitable price from her husband.
What about Gillard’s devoid of fruit hyperbowl, herself deliberately devoid of fruit – according to the shameless Sen. Bill Heffernan – despite the apparent presence of handbag Tim.
Mr. Mathieson on several occasions performed officially as First Spouse, notably with Prof. Herr Merkel and the then Finnish President’s wife.
Gillard and her Tim get a mention in the article under ‘humanising spouse’. But it’s news to me that at some time Gillard also dragged Tim along to pose with her after she was found going behind his back for a bit on the side, so I’m not yet ready to include Tim in the Stand By Your Man category and concede that female politicians also use this tactic when their extra-marital shenanigans catch up with them..
Unnecessarily dismissive of Hazel Hawke, who was an extremely popular PM’s wife and who actively engaged with a large number of community issues during her husband’s tenure. Jen fits into the Janette Howard mould of turning up for the official events but having little interest in community engagement.
Nice gig if you think about it.
Taking up residence in Kirribilli House with views of the harbour, paid personal assistant and the full complements of staff.
Why should she decide to help with any community activities? That would run contrary to her prosperity cult religious beliefs.
What blows me out of the water is how well “Jenny” twisted the facts in order to criticize Grace Tame.
There is no obligation for Grace Tame or anyone else for that matter to be compliant or nice to a man who stood up outside
Kirribilli House after his office had received an accusation of historical rape perpetrated on a 16 year old virgin by a 17 year old.
The accused alleged offender was no less than the Attorney General at the time.
The Prime Minimal stood there and said “No, I have not read the diaries and other documents” “i understand that the accuser is dead, and I have forwarded the documents to the AFP”.
Then the really telling comment “I have spoken with Christian and he vehemently denies this took place” “I believe him”..
As if that was the end of the matter.
No offer of an in camera assessment of Christian Porter’s suitability to hold the office of the first Law Officer of the crown?
Doesn’t this man creep you out? “I believe him”, just like that.
As for his wife, she has had no career outside of her husband’s.
Is this person we would like our female children to model themselves and their lives on?
It appears that “Jen” doe a fine line in earnestly rearranging the truth into a lie, too.
Very fond, like Hyacinth, of enjoying to perks when to the Manor borne, lacking the manners or self awareness to be embarrassed by fawning flunkies and unearned deference.