And there I was thinking I would never have to write another word about the demented Scott feckin’ Morrison...
Even though the ousted con artist and former prime minister is now an insignificant backbencher, news of his abuse of power and disdain for democracy, transparancy, accountability, parliamentary procedure and government norms continues to cause outrage. The latest revelations are mind-boggling in their implications.
Who can it be now?
The Guardian online reports: ‘This week we learned Scott Morrison was appointed to five extra ministries without his colleagues’ knowledge – but there were signs earlier in his prime ministership that he wanted to keep information secret and centralise power. Morrison in 2019 arranged it so that he could hold meetings with anyone and treat them as cabinet-in-confidence. During the pandemic, the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission was set up essentially as a shadow public service. Later, his government blocked freedom of information claims even after a tribunal ruled the so-called national cabinet was not a “cabinet” at all.’ In a separate report, The Guardian says: ‘In Scott Morrison’s mind, he did nothing wrong by awarding himself the powers of the health, finance, treasury, home affairs and resources portfolios like some sort of ghostly understudy. He did what he had to do, and he saved Australia. That was the gist of his hour-long Wednesday press conference. But as always there are inconsistencies, half answers and questions which remain, despite the bluster.’
In that bizarre press conference, Morrison claimed he assumed these additional portfolios as an emergency measure because of the pandemic, in case the relevant ministers became incapacitated by the virus, which is clearly bullshit. Why the secrecy?
The Chosen One
Patricia Karvels (one of those journos that blows this way and that) wrote: “Scott Morrison confused his own defence. He said it was an oversight not to tell his ministers, now he says it was deliberate because he didn’t want it misconstrued and misunderstood.” More bullshit, of course. I suspect this is all part of his Dominionism delusion – the so-called Seven Mountains mandate that so excites the febrile imaginations of Pentecostal zealots. But secretly acquiring five additional ministeries when he could not even do his one job as prime minister is the height of absurdity.
Here are two interesting “coincidences”. When the Ruby Princess disgorged its COVID cases in Sydney on 19 March 2020 and spread the virus across Australia, there was confusion over who authorised it. There were Pentecostals among the passengers. Morrison was secretly ‘sworn in’ as Health Minister 14 March 2020 (rubber-stamped, that is, by a colluding Governor-General). And on May 4 2021, the then Immigration Minister Karen Andrews announced she was considering the release of the abused Murugappan family from imprisonment on Christmas Island into “community detention”. Morrison secretly assigned himself to her portfolio on May 6.
Is there more? Are their other portfolios he sneakily acquired without informing Parliament, his Cabinet or the general public?
The sick joke is that in August 2018, Morrison tweeted “If Labor wins we won’t know who’s running the country, let alone who is Finance, Defence or Foreign Affairs minister”! Naturally, Bullshit Boy has rejected calls – even by his own colleagues – for his resignation: “I’ll continue to serve [my constituents] as the member for Cook and I’ll make a decision at the appropriate time as to whether I’ll contest the next election.”
In what way was he “serving” his constituents in Cook by absconding from the opening of Parliament to attend some obscure RWNJ jerk circle in Tokyo?
The Toxic Twins
Not surprisingly, mouldy former prime minister John Howard (the Petri dish from which decades of Liebral Party malfeasance has spread) emerged from his mausoleum to praise Morrison and insist the bastard remain in parliament, for the sake of the party! We must not risk a by-election and the loss of yet another Tory seat! Also from The Guardian: ‘This saga has exposed how vital cogs of parliament are dictated by tradition, rather than law.’
And you thought Australia was a democracy!
The LP is sunk, all but spent as a political force in Australia, mortally crippled by Morrison’s conceit and derangement. With the barely sentient, cold-blooded Plod Dutton the current party “leader”, extinction is surely near. Soon NSW will wipe the slate clean too in the state elections due in March. That leaves only Tassie.
But the fact remains that Aussies VOTED for Morrison and his mob in 2019 against all the evidence of entrenched LNP deceit, incompetence and corruption. Welcome to Monstralia! Land of the fickle, the easily duped, and the politically illiterate.
