In his post-PM, current backbench capacity, Scott Morrison has kept a low profile in Parliament, finding cause to stand up and address the chamber a sum total of three times.
Duty first called when Queen Elizabeth II died, and next during a post-mortem of his job(s) as prime minister. Now Morrison has rolled out the speechwriters and fired up the printer to declare his opposition to an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Drawing on many previously debunked No case talking points, Morrison yesterday declared the architecture of a constitutionally enshrined Voice to be “ill-defined”, unnecessary, divisive, beyond the jurisdiction of sporting codes, risk-ridden for government and the executive, and business as usual for Indigenous peoples.
“Permanently changing the constitution in the way the government proposes will sadly not change the desperate circumstances being experienced in so many Indigenous communities across Australia,” he said, adding that the proposal was rooted in hope that “can be reasonably foreseen” to result in disappointment.
No rhetoric is nothing new from Morrison. While prime minister, he gave a resounding no to constitutionally carving out space for a Voice. He was, however, for the establishment of Voice mechanisms at a local and regional level.
Former Liberal frontbencher and opposition spokesman for Indigenous Australians Julian Leeser (now joining Morrison on the backbench because of his support for the Voice) took a very different tone during his speech, declaring the Voice had nothing to do with privilege or division, and was not a case of “Moses handing down tablets from the mountain”. Speaking to legal logistics, he likened it to the security service, chief medical officer and chief scientist who act as advisers to Parliament and the executive.
His address was praised on Twitter by Uluru Dialogue co-chair Professor Megan Davis.
As prime minister, Morrison was never one to shy away from the spotlight. To honour the now “quiet Australian”, Crikey has decided to profile the other two times the member for Cook saw fit to take the stand and speak in Parliament.
Death of Queen Elizabeth II
Following the queen’s passing in September, Morrison joined the long list of parliamentarians to pay tribute to the monarch. The former PM used the opportunity to quote biblical scripture, citing a “deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ” as the reason for the queen’s longevity.
Morrison pulled religious references from two of the queen’s Christmas messages (which he noted he’d “taken the time to go back over and read”), describing Jesus Christ as “an inspiration and an anchor” and God as a guide through “good times and bad”, but he landed on his own excerpt about the righteous leader being one “who rules in the fear of God” as the “best description of Her Majesty’s reign”.
Among other things, Morrison described the queen as a rock and a constant: “She was something that didn’t change in a world that changed every minute of every day.”
Censure motion
On this occasion, Morrison was less in a position to preach. He took the lectern in November last year as a matter of order and proceeded to try talk his way out of a censure motion moved against him for the multiple ministries he acquired as prime minister.
While conceding that “there are always lessons to be learned” and that some decisions “in hindsight, were unnecessary”, Morrison was clear that he would be offering no apology for the actions he took.
“I do not apologise for taking action, especially prudent redundancy action, in a national crisis in order to save lives and to save livelihoods,” he said.
The former PM reminded the chamber that criticisms of his decisions were being made from the “safety and relative calm of hindsight”. Far from a beautiful thing, hindsight, Morrison said, was proving to be a limiting factor for “third parties to draw definitive conclusions on such matters and sit in judgement”.
He asked that all not-so-good decisions be weighed against good decisions as a matter of bipartisan policy and in the absence of balance accused the government of “intimidation” and retributive politics.
Morrison implored the Albanese government to remember that “grace in victory is a virtue”.
The man is pathetic, as well as despised for his dishonesty, deception, self interest, nastiness, aggressive attacks and complete lack of compassion! Hardly someone following Jesus Christ’s example. He sees lack of change as a positive, unsurprising given that he seems unable to change himself in any of his roles. A smart man would know that Darwin discovered that it was the capacity and willingness to change that prevented extinction.
The LNP had the last decade to improve things for indigenous people yet they failed to do so. And now they’re trying to stop the current government from doing so.
Eventually he will be faced with one of two outcomes………………….
Either there IS an “afterlife”, in which case Cheezels is not going to have a bar of him, or
There ISN’T an “afterlife” so he can finally disappear into the void.
Win/Win…………… (although I would find the prospect of the first just too delicious for words)
I’m an agnostic, but still like the image of Jesus Christ, newly resurrected for his Second Coming, showing up on ProMo’s doorstep with a flaming whip in one hand, and leading a camel with the other, to explain how little #scottyfrommarketing’s words and actions resemble WWJD.
Moi aussi…………..
………..but my favourite fantasy involves Morrison waking up in Valhalla facing an interview with Odin and realizing he has made one gigantic mistake.
Regarding the second coming, Jesus ascended to Heaven just over 2,000 years ago. Travelling at the speed of light he is about 2% of the way across the Galaxy. With billions of galaxies out there, lets assume Heaven is not in the Milky Way. Unless there is some alternate space-time continuum he can slip in and out of, Its likely to be some time before he’s back. It’ll be a long wait for Scomo.
You misinterpret Darwin. It is not the capacity and willingness of the individual to change that prevents extinction. Rather, it is the ability to pass on heritable traits to one’s offspring, particularly those offering an advantage in the changed environment, which ensures the survival of the species.
However, I doubt that Scummo places much store in Darwin’s theory.
I don’t know what Morrison thinks about evolution but a workmate of mine with similar religious beliefs thinks the planet is 10 thousand years old and evolution is not a thing. No room for Darwin.
Morrison is on record somewhere avowing that the planet is only six thousand years old……..
Apparently when “God” knocked the whole thing up in seven days he thoughtfully included dinosaur bones in the bedrock so that when his curious creations started investigating they’d uncover something that cast doubt on his own existence………
…….and pre-loaded minerals with partially decayed radioactive Carbon atoms to give the scientific illusion of time passed.
Now that’s really thinking ahead………………….
When you start wading in that particular snake-pit it quickly becomes necessary to believe almost any absurdity.
Smirko, Stuart RobDebt et al. in the previous government Pentecostalist cohort, with the addition the so called Prosperity Gospel to their chiliastic eschatology
Such that has it all the true believers, that is those that are Pentecostalists will be taken from the earth by The Rapture…while all others, atheists, all those that follow any other religion, Christian or otherwise will be subject to The Great Tribulation…where they will all experience worldwide hardships, disasters, famine, war, pain, and suffering, which will wipe out most of all life on the earth before the Second Coming takes place.
Could it be that Smirko in his heart had – unlike the overwhelming majority of Australians – no real concern with the prospect of any coming catastrophe whether fire, flood or any other disaster when his own salvation is assured?
There is no acknowledgement of the science and no recognition of human-induced global heating in Pentecostal theology. There would apparently be no point in mortal Pentecostals trying to listen and respond to the cry of the Earth because the fate of our planet and its life is considered out of their hands.
Here is Richard Flanagan’s 2019 take on the same issue: “Morrison’s Pentecostal religion places great emphasis on the idea of the Rapture.
When The Rapture arrives, The Chosen – that is those Pentecostalists with whom the prime minister worships and their controversial pastor – will ascend to Heaven while the rest of us are condemned to the Tribulation – a world of fires, famine and floods in which we all are to suffer and the majority of us to die wretchedly, while waiting for the Second Coming and Scott and company wait it out in the Chairman’s Lounge above.
Preferably by a raptor.
True but Darwinian thought is not exactly top of the pops in evangelical circles.
Christianist is the term, Christianist, a neologism created by Andrew Sullivan a conservative, gay, Catholic author and blogger in 2003 concerning the then President, Dubya, The Faux Texan and his push concerning a “Faith Based Administration”, as attempted recently here in Australia with Smirko, The Happy Clapper and his Disciples.
“I have a new term for those on the fringes of the religious right who have used the Gospels to perpetuate their own aspirations for power, control and oppression: Christianists.
Interestingly Sullivan first used the word “Christianist” in 2003 to describe Eric Rudolph, a US religious terrorist, convicted for a series of anti-abortion and anti-gay-motivated bombings across the southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed three people and injured 150 others.
Rudolph also planted the bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
Sullivan extends the argument, with such being akin to Islamism viz. al Qua’eda, Taliban et al.
“Christianism is an ideology, politics, an ism. The distinction between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist. Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque. …It is the belief that religion dictates politics and that politics should dictate the laws for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike.”
“But any pretense of a religious foundation for Christianism breaks down on many of the issues Christianists now consider their highest priority — cutting social services, blocking access to health care, lowering taxes, undermining public education, repealing restrictions on the ownership and use of firearms, endorsing harsh law enforcement methods and restrictions on the right to vote in communities of color, defending the Mexican border, and closing the door to refugees, to name a few.”
Your description of Scott Morrison was ‘spot on’ Psycho. I just hope we never see the likes of him again. We have tried so so long to improve life for our indigenous people so if voting Yes to the Voice improves their lives by even 1%, it is worth it. I can assure you I will be voting Yes and also hoping with all my heart that Scott Morrison departs this Parliament sooner rather than later.
One criticism that cannot be made about Scott Morrison ie: that he is divisive. Australians are united in feeling contempt for him.
I read The Guardian Australia and Guardian UK every day. I fall around at John Crace’s, Marina Hyde’s and Zoe Williams’ descriptions of Johnson, Truss and Sunak in particular and UK politics in general. Then I remember the A>T>M years here, which differed from the J>T>S times only superficially.
Why are anti-progressive governments so awful?
Because they’re anti-progressive when change is needed .. I think.
Because they put self interest above all else. They work to benefit themselves and their big business mates NOT the citizens of their countries whom they are supposed to represent.
Because they serve the wealthy and the powerful. Also, in Morrison’s case his religious beliefs allowed him to treat the poor and the vulnerable with sheer contempt.
Machiavelli’s famous quote on change states, “There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiators have the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one.”
They will do anything to preserve old institutions, because that’s what they profit from.
Prescient, you’d think Macha was writing about Dodgy Scott and his mates at PwC.
It seems Morrison never got the memo as to WHY he got so resoundingly despatched…………….
Whoever interpreted the LNP as the “Lying, Nasty Party” was absolutely spot on.
Have always thought of them as the “Lying, Nasty Party”, from marching off lock step into the first of those foolish US Military adventures, The Viet Nam Farrago with the waste of the blood and treasure of the C of A. Based on deflection, dissimulation, hypocrisy, mendacity and obfuscation with mendacity to the fore.
Further exhibited by The Lying Rodent©Senator George Brandis with marching off into not one but two more US military adventures in exactly this same manner, mendacity to the fore.
Just as when before coming to Australia I was aware of the so called Conservative Party of the UK was always to me The Nasty Party.
The Guardian view on Theresa May’s speech: back to the nasty party
Theresa May, who 13 years ago had warned that many voters thought the Conservatives were the “nasty party”,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/06/guardian-view-on-theresa-may-conservative-party-conference-speech-nasty-party
That term the Nasty Party was was first used publicly by Theresa May way back in October 2002 she described the Conservative Party
“There’s a lot we need to do in this party of ours. Our base is too narrow and so, occasionally, are our sympathies. You know what some people call us — the Nasty Party.”
The phrase applied to the Conservative Party because of their hostility to disabled people and other vulnerable peoples as well as being anti-gay, anti-minorities, and pro-business and lacking concern for the poor
At least the (Rusty) Iron Lady was aware of how the Tories were viewed……………
………..Morrison appears to be blithely ignorant.
(Come to think of it, that last line stands on it’s own)
That referent might be a touch obscure………….
I refer to May as the (Rusty) Iron Lady, in that all Tory women since the days when Thatcher was doing her level best to destroy the country have fancied themselves as, if not her actual reincarnation, then at least her intellectual heir.
Which leads quite naturally to the collection of fascist nutbags that make up the current feminine arm of the Tory Party.
Permanently changing the constitution in the way the government proposes will sadly not change the desperate circumstances being experienced in so many Indigenous communities across Australia,” he said, adding that the proposal was rooted in hope that “can be reasonably foreseen” to result in disappointment.
You mean like you did to the Australian people Sco Mo? We experienced under you corruption, deceit, lies, underhanded deals and total disregard for Australians ( outside) of your friends and colleagues ( who) benefited from your dirty dealings
DO NOT FIND THAT MORAL COMPASS NOW!
Just leave politics and ” maybe” after time you will be vague memory a lesson in history I hope never repeated!
Cue Kerry O’Brien’s analysis.
A skid-mark?
Yeah, thanks Kiewso..was trying to think appropriate analogy