Michael McGuire: Scott Morrison should have kicked Andrew Laming out of the Coalition

If ex-radio presenter Jeremy Cordeaux had uttered his stupid comments within Parliament House, he’d probably still have a job, writes Michael McGuire.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has certainly managed to get one thing right. There is such a thing as the Canberra bubble.

The use of the term “Canberra bubble’’ has long-been Morrison’s first line of defence against answering questions he doesn’t like. It’s a phrase he has also invoked as a way to signal to “regular” Australians that he’s not really part of that insider, insular, bureaucratic, favours-for-mates, overly political culture that they hate.

But the Canberra bubble is real. And we know this because it’s clear that there is behaviour that is allowable and acceptable for MPs based in Canberra that would be sackable offences if committed anywhere else.

If, for example, the now ex-radio pompous blowhard Jeremy Cordeaux had uttered his stupid comments within Parliament House rather than on the airwaves, he’d probably still have a job.

Maybe he’d have to take leave to attend a counselling course to understand that something as basic as raping women is wrong in all circumstances, but he’d be back at some stage.

Ex-FIVEaa radio presenter Jeremy Cordeaux at home on March 29, 2021. Picture: Matt Turner.

You’d have to believe Cordeaux would be allowed to keep working because the low-rent Queensland MP Andrew Laming still has his job. Laming is on paid medical leave for six weeks after taking an upskirting picture of a woman and for trolling two other women on social media.

Six weeks? I don’t reckon that should be a long course.

“Listen up Andrew, taking pictures of a woman who is bending over to fill up a drinks fridge is the action of a sordid grub. Class dismissed.’’

Federal Member for Bowman Andrew Laming. Picture: Glenn Hunt

Laming is going at the next election. Why wait? He should go now. He should have gone last week.

Morrison made all sorts of play in promoting women on Monday, although apparently he is no longer PM for half the population, and created new portfolios to help women, but it all looks like an elaborate PR exercise while he continues to protect Laming.

Morrison should be listening to women in the party such as Senator Sarah Henderson who want Laming kicked out of the Coalition party room.

But this government has never been too keen on the notion of personal responsibility.

It’s a government that lost a $1.2bn class action over Robodebt and no one was held responsible. The architects and deliverers of this monument to incompetence and cruelty were Christian Porter, Stuart Robert and Alan Tudge. Somehow all three are still in Cabinet. Morrison was Treasurer when it was introduced. Tudge was also found by the Federal Court to have unlawfully deprived an asylum seeker of his freedom. Energy Minister Angus Taylor used forged documents to attack the Sydney lord mayor. Then there was the purchase of land for Sydney’s second airport from a Liberal donor for 10 times its value.

The hardest job in Australia to be fired from is that of cabinet minister.

Maybe that’s why poor old Jeremy was so confused about his sudden expiration. It’s a strange world when radio operators are held to higher standards of accountability than the nation’s leaders.

In a decent world both Cordeaux and Laming should go.

Cordeaux’s comment that alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins was “a silly little girl who got drunk” was victim blaming at its finest. He doubled down by suggesting Higgins needed to be assaulted again.

“Why are we going through these machinations about this young woman? She should have her bottom smacked.”

Cordeaux has blamed the fact that he is not “politically correct’’ for his demise. Of course he does. Although, I’m not sure there was ever a time when it was OK to suggest a woman had only herself to blame for being raped.

Cordeaux is beyond help. But this is an important moment. The anger and the demand for change from women must mean this is a turning point for the nation and not just another flash in the pan that passes us by and is forgotten.

As PM, Morrison must actually show some resolve, some leadership.

Cutting Laming loose, even if it means minority government, would be a small step forward.