Prime Minister Scott Morrison had a press conference today where he attempted to explain how appalled he was that someone could masturbate over the desk of a female member of parliament, and that something must be done.
He rambled on about how it all started with the rape of Brittany Higgins within Parliament House and how it has been a traumatic month and how those in parliament “must put the politics aside on these things and we must recognise this problem, acknowledge it, and we must fix it”. He then went on to say: “Criticise me if you like for speaking about my daughters, but they are the centre of my life. My wife is the centre of my life. My mother, my widowed mother, is the centre of my life. They motivate me every day on this issue. They have motivated me my entire life. They have taught me the values and the faith has sustained me every single day in this job, which is why I am here. I owe them everything.”
When stating this he was almost in tears.1
He was asked several questions by various journalists, but one from Andrew Clennell, a ‘ruperter’ from Sky News engendered a remarkable turnaround from Morrison. Clennell asked: “Prime Minister, if you were the boss of a business and there’d been an alleged rape on your watch and this incident we heard about last night, on your watch, your job would probably be in a bit of jeopardy, wouldn’t it? Doesn’t it look like you’ve lost control of your ministerial staff here?”
Morrison began his reply by using one of his non-answers in saying: “Well, I’ll let you editorialise as you like, Andrew” and followed that with: “But if anyone in this room wants to offer up the standards in their own workplace by comparison I’d invite you to do so.” Clennell replied with: “Well they’re better than these, I would suggest, Prime Minister”
This is when Morrison went into attack mode by replying: “Well let me take you up on that. Right now, you’d be aware that in your own organisation that there is a person who has had a complaint made against them for harassment of a woman in a women’s toilet. And that matter is being pursued by your own HR department.
Clennell replied rather sheepishly: “I am not aware of it.” And Morrison countered with: “You are not aware of it. So let’s not, all of us who sit in glass houses here, start getting into that.”1
The example Morrison gave seems to have been untrue. The owner of the appalling Sky News, News Corp, issued a statement which said that Morrison was “wrong” and no such complaint had been received. They said that, in recent weeks “following the reporting of matters of sexually inappropriate behaviour at Parliament House”, News Corp’s human resources team “proactively” reached out to staff “to talk to us in confidence about their well-being”. During those discussions, they said the HR team learned of a “verbal exchange” between two News Corp employees at Parliament House last year. “The exchange was about a workplace-related issue, it was not of a sexual nature, it did not take place in a toilet and neither person made a complaint.”2
This, as Karen Middleton said when interviewed on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) The Drum (from 5:22), left the journalists at the event “shocked” and “speechless for a minute of two” and that it all felt like it was “political damage control”. What amazes me about this whole shemozzle is that the media, Middleton included, still think Morrison “appears genuine”. I have been documenting Morrison’s disgraceful behaviour over several years, but many in the media seem to be completely unaware of his hypocrisy, his lying, his avoidance of accountability, his venality, his avoidance of responsibility, and his unwillingness to deal with corruption in Liberal Party ranks4-9. All they seem to do is report what the government want.
Maybe Middleton’s realisation that Morrison looks at every drama as if it is all about “political damage control” will slowly make its way through more in the media and make them realise they have been taken for chumps by a narcissist whose only concern is remaining as prime minister. This realisation also seems to have made it into the consciousness of Leigh Sales, the host of the ABC’s 7.30, given her rant of a few days ago where, in part, she said: “I feel like I’m constantly asking myself this question ‘did something change in this country?’ Did something change, that the standard for behaviour now is not ‘I have to do the right thing’ or ‘I have to do what I promised I would do’, but instead ‘how much can I get away with?’… “They’re sick of politicians acting like public money is their own private fund and giving development deals to their mates or grants to their political allies and in the worst cases are taking kickbacks to line their own pockets.”10
This is the same thing that has appalled me in recent years and was the reason I started this blog in early 2017; I got sick of shouting at the television. At the same time, I joined Twitter and found that many people there had the same frustrations and felt the same disgust as I did. We, Uhlmann’s sewer rats11, have been pointing out constantly the ethical shortcomings of Morrison and his government of criminals, and now it seems that the media is starting to catch on. Why has it taken them so long? Are they so bereft of perceptive ability, that they cannot see what is staring them in the face? Are they so concerned about turning out their column inches that they are unable to think too deeply about what they have just seen? Are they simply gullible and too easily fooled by a person with the ethos of a race-course urger?
Sources
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-23/scott-morrison-parliament-house-sexism-culture-transcript/100022908
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-23/scott-morrison-close-to-tears-women/100022866
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/the-drum/
- https://blotreport.com/2020/11/29/morrison-excels-himself/
- https://blotreport.com/2020/07/06/qanon-and-morrison/
- https://blotreport.com/2020/02/01/morrison-as-trump/
- https://blotreport.com/2019/10/21/morrison-and-houston/
- https://blotreport.com/2019/09/29/liar-morrison/
- https://blotreport.com/2019/03/24/morrison-reimagines-history/
- https://centralnews.com.au/2021/03/17/leigh-sales-asks-why-powerful-who-abuse-trust-keep-getting-away-with-it/
- https://blotreport.com/2021/03/07/among-the-sewer-rats/
Personally I don’t blame Jenny, Mrs Morrsion snr, or Morrison’s daughters for ANY of his personal failures, his political decisions, his hypocrisy or his gigantic ego. Should they be implicated in his party’s mistreatment of refugees? Should they be blamed for the refusal to act on climate change, or for the disgraceful (and arguably illegal in the sports rorts case) abuse of taxpayer funds by Ministers under Morrison’s control? How about his failure to uphold Ministerial behaviour standards (as low as the bar i)? Jenny’s partly at fault? How about his refusal to investigate the appalling and illegal behaviour in the banking and financial sectors – and later his denial that he didn’t support a RC? Was his mum behind that?
One the the many problems with Morrison’s regular family references is that it implies two things: (1) those without wives, daughters, mothers, sisters etc can’t really understand the seriousness of the mistreatment of women; (2) that without a wife daughters, and widowed mother and his faith (which he’d have us believe applauds the mistreatment of refugees) Morrison himself wouldn’t be capable of appreciating how horrific these things are.
We’ve had some appalling recent PMs but I doubt there’s ever been one as false and hypocritical as Scott Morrison. That his approach to answering questions hasn’t rung alarm bells with reporters (like Middleton) is telling. His well-honed practice of refusing to answer directly is just one small part of the hypocrisy.
Jon,
His assertion that he gets all his values from the women in his family is disturbing. It probably betrays his singular lack of empathy for anyone who gets in the way of him maintaining his job, whether it be two little girls on Christmas Island or one raped staffer in parliament house. It is all about him.
I know nothing about Catherine Cusack’s (Lib NSW) politics but her statements and actions on this issue are heartening. I suspect the recent exposure of Berejiklian’s behaviour might also have played a part – in which case I’m further consoled, although I’m not expecting this new found political integrity to catch on. The best that I’m hoping for is that politicians and political employees might eventually catch up to community standards.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/loving-your-wife-does-not-make-you-an-icon-for-women-nsw-liberal-mp-s-message-to-pm-20210323-p57dfw.html
Jon,
I’ve never heard of her before either, but the fact that she is walking away from the party room and will ‘no longer listen to the [NSW] government’ gives an indication that it is serious for her. Sue Hickey, the speaker in the Tasmanian parliament has just left the Liberal Party and has related an encounter she had with Eric Abetz in which she maintains he said derogatory things about Brittany Higgins and said Porter would be OK because the woman was dead. It seems to be all starting to unravel for Morrison. In addition, I have detected a change in direction of the Murdoch media. They seem to not be so supportive of him over the last few days. After all Lachlan Murdoch is supposedly at Cavan, the Murdoch family’s property just outside Yass. Expect to see Murdoch go. I gather Frydenberg is doing the numbers for a spill.
Completely correct admin, and Jon, on all points. I simply do no not understand how anyone, let alone experienced journalists, could ever think that Morrison has been genuine about anything, in his whole life, other than his own needs. That is why he has to relate everything to him, using his family as the medium nearly every time to try and show that he is “one of us”. He even did that again today when expressing condolences for a death in the NSW floods. He could relate to the flood disaster because his father was a policeman and had to deal with issues like this and he knew the area involved. Obviously those of us without this type of dad are nowhere near able to have as much concern as he does. The bloke is utterly hopeless. So are the dolts who vote for him and his misbegotten party. By the way the apparent emotion he showed yesterday was only for him. He is the victim after all. What a goose.
Mark,
That lack of empathy is a distinguishing feature of the malignant narcissist. That is Morrison all over.
Despite the obvious acrimony she would have towards the Libs, Hickey’s claims sound very credible imo. The wording is exactly what I’d expect from Abetz. He is yet another hypocrite from the religious right who seems to think that you shouldn’t be judged by your political actions (and inactions) but only those you are directly responsible for.
Jon,
I went to university with Eric Abetz and even then, at the mention of his name, most people would just roll their eyes. He was perceived as a fruitcake then and he has only gotten worse over the years since. He is one of those nasty bigoted christians who make me glad I am an atheist.
Assuming Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins has the guts and integrity to release details of PH workers’ revelations, Morrison will (should) rue the day he challenged the Sky reporter wrt their respective workplace environments. If I was Clennell I’d make a note to remind Morrison of his comment in a few months time when Jenkins’ report is released.
Here’s the question he should lob: “PM in March you suggested that PH’s worplace environment was no worse than Sky’s. Do you now acknowledge that this was naive or was it just another case of your ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ culture?
Jon,
Based on my limited reading, she will do a decent job and will pull no punches. All that has to happen is that the government doesn’t make it difficult for people to come forward, which I wouldn’t put past them.
I think there have been some slight errors in the long exchange of replies on this article. I do agree with Admin and Jon that some media reporting has been rather too soft on sly dog Morrison’s inadequate and politically cynical statements so far – that is, since the bizarre assertion Scomo made over a month back, that he hadn’t any remote awareness of the Higgins matter until 15 February. Not possible to be a true fact for the vast majority of PM watchers! After that day, I feel many good, diligent media people, especially from the Saturday Paper (Middleton for one) and ABC news / 7.30 Report (Sales, Tingle primarily) have shown their ability to critique/ oppose Morrison and bring him up on his weak hesitancy, his cunning evasion of real answers, his habitual awful dearth of sincerity. Middleton, Sales and Tingle, unlike the opportunistic Van Onselen and a few other hacks of the press, are not fooled by the above ploys used to distract from the serious sexism issue within Canberra’s degraded political culture.
And in recent days, Sales has been quietly very clear she disapproves of the PM’s handling of all this. Karen Middleton, Samantha Maiden and Laura Tingle to name but three journos, will take no more of Scomo’s and his vile hench men’s pathetic excuses and fake tears over the sexual harassment matter. (Other reporters seem to simply focus on the dirt and scandal aspects of the current ugly trajectory, rather than put the blame where the buck actually stops.)
As always, final responsibility lies with the government leadership, but that is an aphorism Morrison doesn’t seem to grasp as PM. The women who marched Monday a week ago on federal Parliament have bellowed with one united voice: “Youi clearly don’t want to face it, but the buck stops at Morrison’s door. PM, FIND SOME INTERNAL GUTS IMMEDIATELY, AND TAKE ACTION ON THE SICKO PARLIAMENTARY CULTURE OF TREATING WOMEN AS INFERIOR SEX OBJECTS !”
Russell,
Any generalisation is likely to be in part inaccurate. The media has been slowly waking up to Morrison’s incapability. There are some journalists who have been very aware of it from day one, just not many of them. The high profile and presumably paypackets of those who are still yet to wake up to him amazes me. I thought some of these people were supposed to be sharp, but it seems I was mistaken. Ever since I started this blog, I have become more and more immersed in the politics of Australia and the media’s comentary on it, and I am supremely disappointed at both.
The current trend to women walking out of the Liberal Party in disgust at Scomo’s falsity and vacillation is a sign of declining confidence among the back bench. It betokens that he lost control of both the real issue and of the narrative at least two months ago. Thus the party is bleeding support, and sooner rather than later, he faces a leadership challenge. What I fear is that almost no man on the ministers’ bench is morally, intellectually equipped to make a serious dent in the chronic (that is, secretive, authoritarian, corruption-infected) habits rife among Lib MPs. When a grouping is as disarrayed, as devoid of firm ethics and conscience as the coalition has shown it is, it deserves to be die out, to be expunged from our politics.
The reign of earlier decent, small-L “liberal” Liberals disappeared long ago, helped by the pet power obsessions of John Howard. For me, it’s time the LP were wiped off the Aussie political scene; time that its lowbrow operations, and contempt for the electorate was totally ended. (As virtually occurred in Western Australia recently). My suggestion :
“Hey Liberal grubs, finish your painful (for us voters) suicide mission. Depart our national politics, in order that this directionless, disastrously led country can search in the smoking debris you’ve left behind, for shreds of that pride which you destroyed through arrogance, gross inhumanity and far too many botch-ups committed on your watch.”
Russell,
I think you are correct that Morrison will face a leadership challenge, as his popularity plummets. I don’t think that his appearance as a headless chicken in dealing with the sexual crimes and peccadillos of his ministers and staffers. The fact that his advisers have among them those who seem to believe that jerking the gherkin on a woman’s desk does not engender a great deal of hope that his reactions will improve. I find it funny that the religious are obsessed with sex, but when it raises it’s head, it freaks them out. One bloke I know online said that the desk incident wasn’t extreme misogyny, but was extreme mahogany. I nearly wet myself laughing.
Russell – It’s one thing to critique Morrison’s evasion and puff in opinion pieces or ABC TV talk fests watched by small audiences – who already know his tactics for evading scrutiny, entirely another to challenge the smirking hypocrite to his face. Never heard of Clennell but he at least had the gumption to give it a shot, unlike most of the Press Gallery and independent media. The problem is this: challenging Morrison directly requires a journo to first have a good grasp of the topic (something which is clearly lacking in many cases), and then to not give up when he throws in his very well-known standard evasion techniques (there’s less than a handful by my reckoning). Heck, if necessary get your heads together, develop a standard group anti-evasion response, and keep using it.
Clennell was ready with his question but had no follow up. It’s easy after the event and from the comfort of our armchairs but when the smirking hypocrite rolled out his standard ‘you can editorialise however you want Andrew’, Clennell should simply have said ‘I’m not editorialising I’m asking a straight question which many Australians expect their PM to answer.’
The reason Morrison didn’t venture out of his safe office bubble to address the women’s rally is that he is EXTREMELY image conscious – he didn’t want Australians to see him in a hostile environment he had no control of. He simply doesn’t know how to behave under pressure which is why he loves the safe, soft press gallery and staged photo ops surrounded by supporters (and sycophants). Labor clearly has no idea how to ruffle his feathers IN PUBLIC (the average voter doesn’t give a hoot about parliamentary “wins” ) so we interested citizens (about 20% of the population max) are heavily reliant on the media – TV reporters especially. Imo they either aren’t up to it or don’t have the guts, with few exceptions.
Jon,
As you say, I think the main problem is that many in the media are not prepared enough. It should be relatively easy to develop retorts to his standard evasion techniques he uses, lie the example you suggested. However, doing so requires planning and even, in some cases, perhaps a bit of coordination. I am not surprised Clennell had no follow up. He is a ‘ruperter’ from Sky News, so ability is not his strong suit. You are also right that Morrison always likes it comfortable, just like Trump, and if things get desperate, I can even imagine him having a Trump-like rally with all the knuckledraggers cheering ‘ScoMo! scoMo!’. His desire for comfort was presumably why he wanted to have a ‘delegation’ of women from the March for Justice to meet him in his office. The organiser of the march in Canberra asked people on Twitter what she should do, and people much smarter than me told her not to go, as she would be met with platitudes and maybe even an announcement, but Morrison would control the optics. So, it was suggested that she’d be better off not going, which is what she did. Even better, they lobbed it back on Morrison, and that pissed him off no end. The spin-doctors tried to make it about his personal security being in crowds. Next day he was at the football in the middle of much bigger crowd. Not a genuine bone in his body.
I don’t expect many happened to see a snippet of Sky after dark the other night, one I fell upon while changing channels. Sometimes watching the pathetic ranters of Sky permits me a great laugh, their arguments always so full of idiocy and so debased. Clennell was giving answers, being the journo who caught Morrison out after that “tears for female family” session, when the PM went on a misguided attack. The presenter was that mediocrity, the rabid Rita Panahi. She asked Clennell about his reaction to the current stoush re Parliamentary male (mostly Liberal staffer) culture, expecting the stock response that it’s pretty much just a storm in a tea cup, and contrived only to disrupt the LNP. However, Clennell failed twice to do as Panahi expected, showing support for women MPs speaking up over sexism, repulsion at the sleazy men sharing videos of a sexual act on a female MPs desk, and he critiqued Morrison’s dumb gaffe. Rita poor thing, was suddenly at a loss – quite peeved that Clennell hadn’t given her the automatic “Ruperter” answers she wanted. It was a rare sight on that shoddy, lies-based TV station.
Russell,
Jeez, it would have been good to see Panahi’s face. As you probably have seen, I have had a go at the muppets on Sky After Dark (SAD) fairly regularly, especially Dean, Panahi and the other buffoon. They do have pretend journalists and I called out one of them recently (Laura Jayes) who tried to indicate that Sky calls out conspiracies, when they are one of the greatest sources of that sort of drivel in the media. Disingenuous in the extreme. I do wonder if the fact that Lachlan Murdoch is in town (or at least near Yass) and the fact that Sky by way of Clennell and Credulous (Credlin) and that Samatha Maiden in News.com have been boring it up Morrison, means that the Murdochs have had it with him and that he is on the way out. After all, when Rupert was last at Cavan (the family bunker) Turnbull was deposed by Morrison.
One could (at a pinch) coin a line of strong logic: “Cavan, Murdoch, thus PM will not last!” Back in 1974, apparently Mal Fraser and other conservative identities joined Rupert the Brute quietly at Cavan, and they weren’t chatting about prices for stud bulls much of the time. It is believed that there – Cavan – the king-maker decided “it’s time”. His newspapers began demolishing the Whitlam government reputation, whereas, in 1972, Murdoch had given Gough the silent nod as he campaigned to replace the unpopular LCP coalition. The consequence of that Cavan discussion was a year of relentless anti-Labor and anti-Whitlam criticism in right-wing media. It culminated in Kerr’s Cur (Fraser) stealing the PMs job on November 11, ’75.
Perhaps again, it’s a case of “Cavan! Murdoch, thus PM will not last”.
Russell,
The commentary was so biased from the Murdoch rags in 1975, that journalists at The Australian actually went on strike. I doubt that would happen now, as many of the journalists have been brought to heel. Some details are here: https://blotreport.com/2019/05/11/media-impartiality/