Anthony Albanese slams Scott Morrison’s jokes about his secret ministry appointments
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned Scott Morrison over his predecessor’s sharing of memes on social media playing down his secret ministry power grab.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned Scott Morrison over his predecessor’s sharing of memes on social media making light of his secret ministry power grab.
Mr Morrison’s response to and repost of the memes led to accusations the former PM is playing down serious concerns about his lack of transparency while in office.
“I think that this undermining of our parliamentary system of government, of the whole Westminster system and our democratic traditions of accountability, is something that is not a laughing matter,” said the Prime Minister on Friday morning.
“I’m surprised at the response of Mr Morrison to this.
“I frankly was shocked by the revelations that he not only was Prime Minister, but took over responsibility or shared responsibility for five different portfolios as well…people will make their own judgement.”
Shrugging off calls to resign, Scott Morrison instead shared memes making light of his secret ministry power grab in a bizarre attempt to play down the concerns surrounding this lack of transparency.
Faced with a potential parliamentary investigation for contempt and accusations of breaching the Coalition agreement with the Nationals in the ongoing fallout from the scandal, the former prime minister dedicated much of Thursday to commenting on memes of himself.
But about 8.30pm Mr Morrison went a step further, posting on Facebook using the “feeling amused” emoji, with a meme he created of himself photoshopped to appear as a member of the Australian comedy troupe “Sooshi Mango”.
“It’s been fun joining in on all the memes,” he said.
“But there are so many now I can’t keep up.
“As Aussies we can always have a chuckle at ourselves. have a good evening. This was my own effort with the Sooshi Mango boys.
“Glad to be also joining their team, along with all the other gigs you guys have given me today.”
The Sooshi Mango Facebook page replied, “you can appoint yourself as a member of Sooshi Mango as long as we can appoint ourselves as minister of the Australian Taxation Office”.
In 2021 Mr Morrison did actually secretly appoint himself to the treasury portfolio.
In the comments section of his own post, Mr Morrison shared another photo depicting himself as coach of the NRL Cronulla Sharks.
“Don’t mind this one either,” he said in reference to the Sharks meme.
“But that job is definitely filled and Fitzy is doing an awesome job. UpUpCronulla.”
The internet has been awash with jokes at Mr Morrison’s expense, accusing him of stealing various jobs in satirical takes on his very real decision to covertly assume joint control of five senior ministries during the pandemic without telling the public or most of his colleagues.
Mr Morrison’s post drew hundreds of comments, with many people angry at his attempts to make light of the situation.
“Clearly you have no clue,” one person said. “This is pathetic and shows your clear disregard and disrespect for the Australian people. This is not funny.”
“You think the running of this country is a joke. Have some humility and say you made a mistake. We don’t need US-style gloating about how badly you behaved in office,” said another comment with almost 200 likes.
One person suggested the memes were a product of Mr Morrison having a “taxpayer funded team,” to which he replied: “don’t have one. I’m a backbencher”.
Not everyone was upset at Mr Morrison, with hundreds of people also replying with supportive comments.
“If you can’t laugh at yourself then you don’t have a true sense of humour. Love seeing the memes and your replies. Playing along along with the memes … absolute legend,” said one person.
“You’ve always been a good sport Scott Morrison,” another fan said.
Originally published as Anthony Albanese slams Scott Morrison’s jokes about his secret ministry appointments
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