How do you solve a problem like Scott? It looked like it might go away. But it is not… budging.
It now seems that former prime minister Scott Morrison is sticking around for a little longer than first thought and may cling on to his seat of Cook until the next election. The logic is that the Liberals are reluctant to risk losing Morrison’s southern Sydney seat to the teals in a by-election, if Liberal sources cited by The Australian are correct.
Meanwhile Morrison continues to sit in Coalition partyroom meetings where, according to recent reports, he has fired off a warning that Anthony Albanese should not be “too keen” to meet China’s President Xi Jinping. Leaked comments had it that Morrison cautioned against the government’s “acquiescent and concessional approach” towards restoring relations with China.
Quoted by the ABC, Morrison’s partyroom remarks went further abroad and were later woven into commentary by The Australian’s Greg Sheridan who suggested that while Albanese should meet the Chinese president he should heed Morrison’s note of caution in his dealings with him.
Yet there is a problem with this picture.
While sounding off about Australia’s approach to China, Morrison remains on the board of the China Centre, which is part of influential US policy think tank the Hudson Institute. (The institute receives generous funding from Rupert Murdoch.)
Here he sits side by side with China Centre board chairman Mike Pompeo, former US secretary of state in the Trump administration. Pompeo marked himself out as the most belligerent of China hawks while in office and remains close to a network of China hawk Republicans. One of these is influential Republican Mike Gallagher, profiled by Crikey. Morrison, of course, is close friends with Pompeo, a fellow Pentecostal Christian whom he had on speed dial as prime minister.
It means that through Scott Morrison there is a direct line of influence from a US policy think tank to the Coalition partyroom, and from there to the Australian media via partyroom leaks.
When Morrison took his role at the Hudson Institute after his election loss last year, it appeared that any overlap with his time as a member of Parliament would be temporary.
Yet it appears the job offers have not flowed Morrison’s way. His dual roles have become more permanent than anyone imagined.
The Australian Parliament appears to be stuck with a member who is also part of a powerful Republican-leaning US policy think tank, with no clear end in sight.
Long may Morrison remain tied around the neck of the Liberal Party like a slowly decomposing dead cat, helping Dutton to make the party unelectable for years to come. As long as the voters of Cook can put up with the smell…
Excellent comment!
Morrison will be off like a robber’s dog the moment he gets the call from the NACC………….
………we should be getting hold of his passport NOW.
It might be difficult prizing him loose from the Pentecostal escape route in Alabama.
He’s a poor mans Trump who thinks he has a comeback chance down the track.
The stench of Rot Morrison is akin to a turd that just won’t flush.
No Morrison is worse.
“It means that through Scott Morrison there is a direct line of influence from a US policy think tank to the Coalition party room, and from there to the Australian media via party room leaks.”……………
Rest assured, He Who Must Not Be Named has no need of such convoluted access.
He gets his Intel direct from the Republicans and wholesales it to the Australian mugs.
Morrison, the classic modern Liberal politician. Failing upwards throughout his ‘career’, always demonstrating his signature characteristics of malignant incompetence and cynical narcissistic manipulation. A textbook example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, a disaster of a human only kept turd-like afloat by a network of Creepy Jesus Prosperity Christians and the Murdoch-Costello-Stokes protection racket. Hell has a special place for his kind.
You are too charitable. 😉