Booking the guest On the day he lost the top job, former prime minister Scott Morrison was described by Bernard Keane as “not merely Australia’s worst prime minister, he’s the worst prime minister for his own party on either side of politics”. And indeed, he has a special and powerful talent for ruining his colleagues’ day.
Not content with having done so to Josh Frydenberg, Keith Pitt, Karen Andrews, Mathias Cormann and Peter Dutton, he reached back, past his own time in Parliament, to bugger up John Howard. Howard went on 7.30 last night, just wanting to talk about his new book, A Sense of Balance, and had to instead sustain a grilling at the hands of Sarah Ferguson, which he eventually got sick of:
JOHN HOWARD: I don’t want to be combative, and I know you don’t want to be combative …
SARAH FERGUSON: Nor do I, sir.
JOHN HOWARD: But I thought we were going to talk about …
SARAH FERGUSON: There are plenty of things to talk about …
JOHN HOWARD: I know, I know, well, I don’t want to be — suggest for a moment I have been got on this program under false pretences.
SARAH FERGUSON: No, we certainly asked you on this program to talk about some of the contents of your book, but you would not deny me the opportunity to ask you an important …
Spinning records Morrison has also been subject to the fate that befalls any disgraced public figure — the swift updating of their Wikipedia page. In Morrison’s case, the list of his roles in government just got significantly longer:
These changes have not come without controversy, though. The editors of the page are having a real nerd fight as to whether the change to the infobox is warranted:
ITBF: I have yet to see any sources that unequivocally state whether Morrison was actually appointed as ‘Minister for X’ or as an acting minister in the way that the deputy prime minister becomes acting prime minister … We should be waiting for confirmation from official sources as to the exact nature of the appointments, not using tabloid sources that don’t understand the difference and making guesses …
Nick-D: You might be right, but neither the Guardian or the ABC are tabloids, and they are explicitly stating that Morrison was the minister for these things. Michelle Grattan is also not a tabloid journalist and is stating the same.
After a long debate, one editor concludes: “No one is truly going to look back and say that Scott Morrison was treasurer during this period, they are going to say it was Josh Frydenberg — the fact that Scott Morrison may too have technically been treasurer too is more of a sidenote; an oddity.”
Frankly, we’re more concerned about his godawful LinkedIn page — Morrison has resolutely failed to action ANY of the handy tips we got together for him a few week ago, and now we see he wasn’t even keeping his “experience” section up to date:
Going on the offensive And finally, after some for-the-ages Morrisonia via interviews, the former PM gave us a long, long, interminably long statement on Facebook last night. The Australian ran it as an article and had to cut 200 words. Its near 1300 words contain a wonderfully shrugged confession that he didn’t remember half the ministries he’d appointed himself to (“There was a lot going on” may go down in history as Morrison’s “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”).
It contains a truly magnificent non-apology — pulling a “Sorry if you were offended by my bizarre addiction to secrecy and potential undermining of democratic norms” in the direction of his colleagues. What it doesn’t contain is a single indication as to why any of this had to be kept secret.
JOHN HOWARD: I know, I know, well, I don’t want to be — suggest for a moment I have been got on this program under false pretences.
SARAH FERGUSON: I’m sorry but the promise to interview you about the book was a non-core promise.
“false pretences” from him that gave us children overboard $#%^@%$@#!!
The Iraq war casus belli he championed was also somewhat, ah… bullshit.
Pure Gold! Especially this bit: “$#%^@%$@#!!”
Why Sarah Ferguson asked that failed former PM on her program astounds me. He’s not only an old fogey, he lost his own seat. What credibility would he have on any subject?
He’s got a book to flog and would gladly accept any invitation to speak anywhere.
I was in two minds about watching him interviewed by David Wenham several weeks ago as the final in a great series drawing on ABC Archive material. I think it is good to be reminded where and when the great downward slide in politics and leadership started.
Yet still folks (eg Crikey) assume the slide started after 2007
Yes, Howard was the primal Great White Ant who started chewing away at our social and political fabric. But it is still alarming to see the Gollum-like figure suddenly popping up everywhere.
The the Gollum-like figure ” who goes on about his own precioussss.
Who began the slide for Australia down into the deep, despicable, dank, dark hole that led to Smirko and His Brethren
But this is Gollum’s last dance.
Think about it. JH started the rot back in 1996 (as you know). Labor wasn’t perfect but it was JH who played the race-card with Hansonism, the Tampa election in 2001 and flogged the CES (and so much more).
His whole project is under fundamental attack, with his protege Morrison losing the top job and now being shown to be so low.
Despite Murdoch hysterics, typical Australians want to undo the whole JH project. JH popping up everywhere is like the fundamentalist preacher shouting – because most people are no longer listening.
Last dance by an aged, decrepit, and shrivelled puppet that the Lying Nasty Party drag out of a dusty cupboard from the past.
This to assure the people of Australia that really things have not changed and everything is for the better?
Any suggestions for the music to accompany such?
I voted for him – every time. I was young, female, English liberal descent, uneducated and socially conditioned to look to the phallis in all circumstances.
If it was John Winston Howard and you looked to the phallis you must have needed a microscope.
“The Great White Ant”. Love it
Good point about the evidence. In my time in the public service you werent appointed until you were gazetted in the Government Gazette. I assume this didnt happen in this case so the question is about whether this is strictly true or one of those conventions that have been trashed. Did Hurley at least make a diary note? What paperwork is required or is it all conventions and no legal reqirements?
Scomo did not possess the aptitude or the capacity to sit in the Prime Minister’s chair. The whole term of the Scomo time in office did not achieve anything of value or benefit for the Australian people.
Scomo had indeed engaged in treason against our nation through & by his long-term liaisons with Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, the lying & treacherous war dog Mike Pompeo.
That relationship has cost Australia its triple-digit ‘many in number’ of Billions of Australia’s taxpayer-generated annual revenue dollars.
I am unable to tally up the reduced annual budgeted health & social welfare budgets in terms of the hundreds of
millions of dollars reappropriated to lesser deserving recipients.
EG: the huge funding grants drawn from Australia’s treasury then gifted to the US-owned fossil-fuel giants, then the colossal funding grants to the US-based Arms & Weapons manufacturing corporations to set up shop in Australia.
Now I touch upon the estimated half a Trillion dollars increase in Australia’s debt load that had become the recipients of that ginormous estimated 500 Billion dollars.
Lastly, Australia’s most significant trading partner, China, had lost a great deal of its trust in our nation when Australia’s PM sided with the USA narrative of “hatred against China” being published across the World.
Ask yourself if the new AUKUS Military Alliance with Britain & the USA that was signed off by Scott Morrison was in the best interests of our sovereign nation.
Australia is currently acting as a huge cash cow for the multiple USA corporations now plundering our natural oil & gas & mineral resources.
Notwithstanding that Australia’s Office of Inspector General does not even represent the people of Australia.
William, would love to see your words written on giant billboards right across the country!
I have been unable to find any hint of an apology to the people of Australia in Scummo’s soliloquy.