[On Scott Morrison] Has an Australian political party ever elected a man or woman so characterless to be its leader? So ignorant and open to corruption? So unaware of truth and transparency? (His lying has indeed become pathological.) So insensitive to those who cannot help themselves yet amenable to furthering the interests of those who can? So willing to endorse and foster inequality? So illiterate when it comes to science and technology? So oblivious to the needs of women that he needed the advice of his wife? So against change. So inept at policy formation and its implementation. So prone to the language of absurdity. So self-righteous in attitude toward others. So aggressive and dismissive of those who seek fairness and equality. So out of touch with a modern pluralist society. A person so unsophisticated in deep worldly insight or discernment, yet profoundly devoted to his religion.
John Lord
August 28, 2021
We're getting to the nub of Morrison's problem, and the reasons for his refusal to condemn anti-vaxxer denialism [from George Christensen], or to introduce incentives/punishments such as vaccine passports: he would rather sacrifice Australians' health than risk his numbers by condemning anti-vaxxers.
Nick Feik
August 10, 2021
The single most important thing Australia can do on climate is to vote out the Morrison government.
Ben Eltham
August 10, 2021
Morrison has lost control of the virus and vaccine narrative. He is losing control of the economic narrative as we now risk a double-dip recession. He has accepted Barnaby Joyce back with no conditions – indeed, let him start to dictate climate and other policy. He has failed to deal effectively with claims of rape, bullying and harassment in Parliament House; has normalised pork-barrelling, corruption and wasteful expenditure; denies responsibility; is quick to blame others; and ignores the need for reform in response to the great social challenges of Indigenous recognition, child- and aged-care, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, mental illness and domestic violence. [The Saturday Paper, July 31st, 2021]
John Hewson
August 1, 2021
Most [journalists] don't see it as their job to look underneath the curtain – they just report on the puppet show.
Ronni Salt
July 28, 2021
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
Thomas Jefferson
July 28, 2021
Someday, perhaps not long from now, the inhabitants of a hotter, more dangerous and biologically diminished planet than the one on which I lived may wonder what you and I were thinking, or whether we thought at all. … Of course we did it to ourselves; we had always been intellectually lazy, and the less asked of us, the less we had to say. … We all lived for money, and that is what we died for.
William Vollmann
July 14, 2021
[Morrison’s] core competency is not taking responsibility for anything that goes even a little bit pear-shaped, while snatching up the gold medal glory for themselves when things do go well. There is an even more cynical aspect to this however, and that’s the way Morrison has hijacked the civic capital of a national, non-political institution like the Army to protect himself and his government from legitimate critique and condemnation. In this he has made a human shield of General Frewen. (Alien Sideboob, July 9, 2021)
John Birmingham
July 10, 2021
Scott Morrison encapsulates the retreat from values, the lack of regard for truth, for decency and the long-term public interest. (Pearls and Irritations, July 7, 2021)
Jack Waterford
July 7, 2021
Under Morrison, we're having to relearn one of the main lessons of the corrupt Bjelke-Petersen regime - [that] many conservative voters will tolerate (and indeed condone) any degree of government corruption just so long as it benefits them personally, despite the deep harm it causes others.
