Scott Morrison suggests those criticising his publicity stunts are ‘sneering at millions of Australians’
As the election draws nearer, we can expect the spin from all sides to reach brazen levels. Today the Prime Minister gave us a good example.
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As the federal election draws nearer, we can expect the spin from all sides of politics to become ever more brazen. Today the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, made a particularly extraordinary claim.
Speaking to 2GB radio in Sydney, Mr Morrison addressed the mockery he’s copped recently over a couple of harmless (albeit cringeworthy) moments.
Moment one: his decision to play the ukulele on national television. Moment two: his visit to a hair salon in Melbourne earlier this month, during which he washed an apprentice’s hair.
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This morning, 2GB host Ben Fordham asked Mr Morrison about the ukulele thing.
“(60 Minutes) wanted to talk about how we live, and what we do. And yeah, that’s what I do,” Mr Morrison explained.
“We were talking about it and, you know, I decided to show Karl (Stefanovic) my ukulele talents, which are very limited.”
Fordham jokingly suggested the moment was Stefanovic’s idea.
“Karl has got all sorts of ideas and he’s got some duds. And this was a Karl Stefanovic idea, for sure,” he quipped.
But Mr Morrison wanted to make a serious point.
“Look, to be honest though, Ben, whether it’s that or other things – I mean, people were having a crack at me the other day because I went to a hairdressing salon. Let me be serious for a moment,” he said.
Fordham said he needed to wrap up the interview.
“OK, well let me finish,” said Mr Morrison.
“What occurred there – I go into workplaces all the time. People show me how to weld, people show me how to do other things in factories and manufacturing plants. These were trainees and apprentices who wanted to show me what they’re learning on the job.
“So if people want to sneer at me for that, if they want to sneer at me for other things, like playing the ukulele, fine, they’re sneering at millions of Australians who just get on with their lives and do a great job.”
It’s that last, preposterous part in bold that I want to dissect.
First, I should stress that I don’t give a damn about the Prime Minister washing someone’s hair. Is it the most productive use of his time? No. I would think the leader of the country has more important things to do. But if you’re holding out for a prime minister who spurns goofy photo ops, you’re going to be waiting a long, long time.
There is also the beginning of a reasonable argument in Mr Morrison’s answer: yes, the Australian prime minister should occasionally meet actual Australians, and that requires him to go out and about, though running his hands across voters’ hair follicles is certainly optional.
The thing that rankles is the absurd attempt at deflection.
Mr Morrison said people “sneering” at his hair salon photo op, or at the ukulele clip, were also “sneering at millions of Australians who just get on with their lives”.
Umm, what? No. They were just sneering at him. It is possible to make fun of the Prime Minister without insulting millions of other people at the same time; indeed one might call it a great Australian tradition.
(A subset of internet trolls did decide to bombard the salon with vitriol for daring to host the Prime Minister. That loathsome abuse is entirely distinct from those who were just mocking or criticising Mr Morrison.)
To give you a case study: broadcaster Steve Price described the hair salon visit as “breathtakingly idiotic”.
“It’s time for the Coalition to get some courage and to start dumping these pathetic media stunts,” Price said.
“Leadership, not cringeworthy stunts for the nightly news, is your way out of the hole you have dug for yourself.”
In what universe could this criticism be interpreted as “sneering at millions of Australians”? It’s criticism of just one Australian: Scott Morrison.
Conservative columnist Andrew Bolt said Mr Morrison was “making a fool of himself to get some love”.
“It was sad. Would John Howard have pulled such a stunt? Robert Menzies? Margaret Thatcher? Reagan?”
Again, this is criticism of Scott Morrison, and nobody else.
The message Mr Morrison’s remarks today sent is: “If you criticise me, you are criticising everyday Australians.” This is a bold form of intellectual dishonesty, and one used by plenty of politicians, both here and overseas, when it suits them.
I just spent a year in the United States, for example, where former president Donald Trump has spent years convincing his supporters that criticism of him is actually an attack on them. He casts himself as a human shield, protecting them from the contempt of nasty Democrats and cultural “elites” who want to destroy their way of life.
It is a self-serving fiction. When someone fact checks Mr Trump’s election lies, for instance, they are saying nothing at all about the people who voted for him.
Mr Morrison is not on that level. Every now and then, however, he does dabble in the same genre of political spin.
Remember the Prime Minister’s spat with French President Emmanuel Macron last year? Mr Macron, upset at Mr Morrison’s decision to scrap a $90 billion submarine contract, publicly accused him of lying.
“I have a lot of respect for your country. I have a lot of respect for your friendship and your people. I just say, when we have respect, you have to be true and you have to behave in line, and consistently, with this value,” Mr Macron told reporters.
“Do you think he lied to you?” he was asked.
“I don’t think. I know,” said the French President.
I ask French President Emmanuel Macron whether Scott Morrison lied to him: “I don’t think, I know.†pic.twitter.com/3tcg4xrl90
— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) October 31, 2021
Those remarks are what Mr Morrison was responding to the following day, in Glasgow, when he said this.
“I must say that I think the statements that were made questioning Australia’s integrity, and the slurs that have been placed on Australia – not me, I’ve got broad shoulders, I can deal with that,” the Prime Minister said.
“But those slurs, I’m not going to cop sledging at Australia. I’m not going to cop that on behalf of Australians. I can deal with whatever people throw at me.”
The Prime Minister actually put forward a perfectly reasonable argument at that Glasgow media conference: his job was to serve the national interest, and he concluded that sticking with the French submarine deal was not the best option. Fair enough.
But Mr Macron did not question Australia’s integrity. He did not “sledge” Australia. His target was, very specifically, Mr Morrison.
By framing it differently, Mr Morrison presumably hoped to galvanise Australians behind him, limiting the political damage from an allied world leader calling him a liar.
There’s a large spectrum of political spin, from the garden variety stuff (like omitting inconvenient information that undermines your argument) to the shameless (like insisting you never said something when it’s literally on tape).
I’m not sure where exactly that remark from Mr Morrison today falls on the spectrum, but it’s somewhere beyond the point of insulting our intelligence.
Originally published as Scott Morrison suggests those criticising his publicity stunts are ‘sneering at millions of Australians’
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