From a government that normally stands for nothing, this week’s disasters are atypical in combining the incompetence we’ve come to expect with ideological pursuits.
The religious discrimination bill you know about. Designed to wedge Labor, Morrison instead wedged his own backbench, being defeated on legislation on the floor of the House and forced to withdraw his package because he was going to be defeated in the Senate as well.
The only, feeble defence was the claim of vague and unspecified unforeseen consequences of protecting trans kids, allegedly conjured up by the Australian Government Solicitor, but just as likely to have been devised by a junior staffer in the office of Michaelia Cash, whose normal pathological laughter was seldom heard as her week went from bad to worse.
Still, it’s of a piece with the general incompetence of Morrison’s PMO that some genius there thought it was a brilliant idea to beat up on trans kids for the purposes of dividing Labor.
Religious discrimination is as much a personal obsession of Morrison as it was an election commitment. It is one of the few core beliefs in Scott Morrison’s incoherent personal ideology, that his treasured religion is under attack, particularly from LGBTIQA+ people. That it would, ostensibly, make for a good wedge against Labor doubled its appeal.
That’s why he was willing to cave in and agree to a stronger federal anti-corruption body in order to get it through — something we know because at least one of Morrison’s cabinet ministers is working to destabilise the prime minister by leaking information.
A similar combination of ideology, personal obsession and pragmatism drove Josh Frydenberg to his own humiliation, with his too-smart-by-half plan to destroy the proxy advice industry at the behest of his business mates and donors getting disallowed in the Senate. As Joe Aston pointed out in one of many brilliant savagings of Frydenberg on the issue, Frydenberg was also doing the work of his own personal law firm.
Plus, the regulations would target proxy advice firms used by big industry super funds, and Frydenberg, as much as any other Liberal MP, is obsessed with the destruction of industry super and what they fear is the growing power of giant super funds to dictate policy to even the biggest companies.
We’ve been here before, but maybe Frydenberg, who back then was a parliamentary secretary in charge of Tony Abbott’s bonfires of old lighthouse laws (aka the war on red tape), doesn’t remember. He should have put in a call to Paris and had a word with Mathias Cormann about the wisdom of trying to sneak through attacks on industry super via regulation. Cormann tried to repeal Labor’s Future of Financial Advice laws that way and thought he’d gotten away with it until Sam Dastyari cobbled together a crossbench coalition to disallow the regulations. Because that’s the beauty of disallowances of regulation — you get more than one go at stopping them if you lose the first (or even second) time.
Rex Patrick only needed one go to knock off Frydenberg’s proxy regulations, which lasted three days. Those regs now go on the long list of Liberal efforts to do over industry super that instead ended up damaging the government, long enough you could make a Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon out of it, complete with Frydenberg, as he was yesterday, looking to camera as he realises he’s run right off a cliff before plummeting earthward.
Desperate for a distraction, the government, from Morrison down, launched bitter personal attacks on Anthony Albanese, who according to the press gallery has gone from “can’t win” to “won’t win” to “could win but will bugger it up” to “hasn’t won yet”, all while ignoring the advice of chin-stroking commentators and the Twitterati alike to lead with his chin.
Peter Dutton went as far as to imply China was backing Albanese. In doing that, Dutton was demonstrating exactly the kind of prime minister he’d be — uncompromising and aggressive, ready to take the fight to Labor.
Dutton isn’t the safe choice to replace Morrison. That would be Frydenberg, that assiduous self-promoter and media worker. Frydenberg would be the “save the furniture” leadership candidate, designed to ensure an election loss was kept to manageable margins and be competitive in 2025.
Dutton would be the swing-for-the-fences option — high-risk but potentially high reward, who wouldn’t be about saving the furniture but about pulling off a miracle win by dint of sheer aggression. It would be ugly, but it might work — or it might blow up.
But what you can definitely say about Dutton after this week (which began with Dutton outsmarting Morrison on the ADF being deployed into aged care) is that his political judgment remains intact. For Morrison and Frydenberg, their judgment looks about as shabby as their legislative record.
Yeah, Frydenberg and ScoMo
have had a lousy week,
both battered as their scheming
went up that well-known creek,
but Dutton’s not the answer,
he’s just a wrecking-ball
who’d take flight on his ego
and send us to the wall.
The Duttsman deals in garbage,
he wallows in the trash
revered by politicians
who want to make a splash
by trawling through the rubbish
down deep in slimy bins
where grubby habits flourish
and treachery begins.
He’d sacrifice all scruples
to climb the greasy pole
and gain some slight advantage
by selling off his soul,
for he has no compunction
in hitting hard and low,
so we’re about to witness
the depths to which he’ll go.
Sensational Gazza
Outstanding, question the Dutton having a soul but. All the empathy of a great white shark
Oi! Don’t be comparing the decency of a great white with the Gestapotato!
Heard Dutton this morning on RN insinuating (using Spud Speak) that Albo was an affiliate of the CCP.
What’s wrong with this nation of ours that gives these loons a sop box?
A perfect image – SOP BOX!
Thanks.
He is the wrong person to be a politician, using spud speak, ( thanks to Roberto) he should be peeled, chipped and deep-fried, served, hot with a sprinkling of salt. far tastier, than cold potato hash, which he is currently serving up.
This is obviously going to be a Liberal line. Exactly the same racist and nasty comments were being whispered about Jason Yat-sen Li during campaigning in the Strathfield by-election – primarily at pre-poll where it was easier to get away with racist and nasty comments from Liberal volunteers to voters rather than on election day with more volunteers at the polling booths.
Mr Li called this racist behaviour out on Saturday night. I now wish I had been braver and called it out when I formed the belief that this was happening.
So you think Dutton’s decision to take us one step closer to the division and distrust that saw a bunch of Americans storm Congress was smart politics? Not what I want in a Prime Minister.
Indeed. This is Keane again judging a politician by what works to advance that politician and no other standard.
Dutton is no doubt very satisfied with the results of his lies and smears about Labor and Albanese. They have been repeated and discussed by just about everyone across all the media that counts for anything. That increases Dutton’s visibility and for his purposes it is irrelevant whether the coverage supports or condemns what he says. All that matters is the public sees the lies and smears and learns the association with Labor and Albanese, and so Dutton’s work is done.
The collateral damage of Dutton’s tactics include worsening relations with other countries for no good reason and dragging Australia’s security services into a partisan political fight that wrecks the very important bipartisan relationship between those services, the government and the opposition. It’s dangerous and stupid and against the national interest but none of that hurts Dutton or his political ambition so of course he does not care.
PC Plodd’s cameo on 7:30 a week ago (Feb 3) spelled out everything against any reason for his getting his hands on the national steering wheel – he’s worse than Morrison in oh so many ways.
Plodd’s reaction in the face of being expected to give account for his actions/words hasn’t changed since the daze when he fronted Lateline with Emerson. When Emerson had him on the ropes (about party loyalties and liaisons) and PLodd lashed out at Emerson’s about his “personal relationship” with Gillard.
He’s more thin skinned and authoritarian than even Morrison, to the point of Cartmanesque – as Officer Barbrady “Respect MY Authoritah!”
He hates being held to public account more than Morrison.
After the episode in 2016 of his texting Maiden with his “mad fu**ing witch” character assessment of her – that was meant for Jamie Briggs – that he had to subsequently grovel to her in public apology after.
He’s more accident prone than Morrison.
Discussing the uncomfortable texts about Morrison – striking back at Tingle “wondering what she says and how she refers to him with her colleagues …. but he’s not really interested in that”?
He’s more interested in lashing out and shooting the messenger – to shift focus from his discomfort in the face of accounting – than Morrison.
His excuse for the way the French were treated over the sub contract – in the face of contradictory evidence in communications from Moriarty, his own departmental secretary, that the subs were progressing fine.
He’s more full of bare-faced errant BS than Morrison.
That the sub contract building was “compartmentalised” to the extent of a “need to know” what was really going on – AND that he, this flat-footed lummox (with the “Safer Communities Fund” redirection pork barrel fiasco on his list of credits) is one of those???? …… Picked, promoted and worn by Turnbull too, as one of his Cabinet adornments, it has to be mentioned.
FFS “Plodd is more capable and fit to process what’s going on than the experienced heads of his departments”? The personal interceding to maladministration of funds meant for the Safer Communities Fund – to divert funds meant for that project – to electoral pork barreling, for party political purposes all over again
He’s more full of inane, logic-defying excuses than Morrison.
… Any wonder he’s so averse to fronting the ABC : preferring instead to give his time freely to his Dorothy Dixer friends working under the likes of his political buoys Murdoch and 2GB, where his sense of humer and onner are so understood and accepted.
About the only good thing Morrison has done was in keeping Dutton from Kirribilli/Lodge.
Surely someone must have some ‘dirt’ on Dutton -m if only from his days as a Queensland ‘walloper’?
Oh, I think the Ruby Princess disaster might reward review in that regard
Hamid Kharzia.
you mean like ‘why did he resign from the cops a year before his pension was due?’ stuff like that?
Rumor has it that when he left Qld Police he was given a can of dog food as a ‘send off’ gift.
Almost as long as a Jack Robertson!
But infinitely more interesting and insightful.
Well done.
Honestly we have to ask ourselves, how on earth did we get here, a contest between Spud, Smirko and our work experience Treasurer (who was recently described in the Fin Review as being lighter than helium), God help us !!!
A wonderful precis of Plod’s timeline plus perspicacious analysis – absolutely brilliant.
No authoritarian should be leading a government. We are already wounded by it.
Agreed.