Scott Morrison’s plan: Unite and conquer

SCOTT Morrison has pledged to be a “fresh and optimistic” leader and will begin his prime ministership with a visit to regional Queensland as he tries to shake his city slicker reputation.

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SCOTT Morrison has pledged to be a “fresh and optimistic” leader and will begin his prime ministership with a visit to Queensland on Monday to support the Sunshine State’s drought-stricken farmers.

Mr Morrison will be joined by his Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack on the trip, where they will tour bone-dry parts of central-western Queensland.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack will join Scott Morrison on his trip to Queensland. Picture: Saeed Khan/AFP

The new Prime Minister will use the trip to try to soften his Sydney-centric image and is believed to be considering a mini-stimulus package of infrastructure grants for regional towns to create jobs, The Sunday Mail can reveal.

Mr Morrison admitted he was a city slicker who had a lot to learn about the bush — in a sign he acknowledges one of his political weaknesses in Queensland.

“I’m from the city. I’m not pretending to know one end of a sheep from another,” he said.

“But I do know people are hurting in the country and they have been hurting terribly.”

In an exclusive sit-down interview with The Sunday Mail — his first since becoming Prime Minister on Friday — the former Treasurer admitted the Liberal Party needed to heal but said he was willing to fight Bill Shorten on fairness.

“Fairness means many different things to many different people but to me it means that if you have a go, you’ll get a go,” Mr Morrison said.

“That’s what we bring to the world, that optimistic attitude where everyone can have a go.

“A fair go doesn’t mean everybody gets the same things, a fair go assumes you are going to have that go.”

PM Scott Morrison with his wife Jenny and daughters Lily and Abbey. Picture: Kym Smith

In the days since he became Australia’s 30th Prime Minister, Mr Morrison has reached out to former party greats including former treasurer Peter Costello and former prime minister John Howard.

But Mr Morrison, 50, believes his rise to the top, alongside deputy leader Josh Frydenberg, also signals a generational change for the Liberals, who will need to move away from the bitter factional feuds if the Coalition wants to win the next election.

“The circumstances in which Josh and I have come into the leadership are quite unique in modern political times in Australia,” he said.

“We have both stepped up to these roles having been very supportive of the (former) prime minister (Malcolm Turnbull) and Julie (Bishop).

“We have crossed that bridge yesterday (Friday). It wasn’t a bridge we all necessarily wanted to cross at the start of the week but that has been done now.”

On Friday night, Scott Morrison was meant to be at home to cook a curry for wife Jenny and his two girls Lily and Abbey.

Instead, Australia’s newest Prime Minister has spent the past 48 hours in briefings with army chiefs and taking calls from world leaders.

It’s a big change for Mr Morrison and his wife, whom he met through church connections when they were teenagers, before they married at 21.

Mr Morrison said he spoke to Australia’s new first lady in the moments before he entered the partyroom for Friday’s ballot.

“I said (to Jenny): ‘At the end of the day you are always here and that’s what matters most’,” he said.

“It’s a pretty significant moment. I would have wanted Jen and the girls here either way.”

Playing in his office yesterday afternoon, his daughters Lily, 9, and Abbey, 11, seemed oblivious to the huge change that has hit their family.

“They are young girls and Jenny and I obviously want to be very careful of that through what will be a big change in their lives like ours,” Mr Morrison said.

“It’s all very exciting for them.”

While the family will stay in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire for now, Mr Morrison has not ruled out moving his family to Canberra to avoid having long periods apart.

“This is a big change … but we make these commitments as a family,” he said.

“At the moment we will stay in The Shire. It’s pretty hard to pull people out of The Shire, it doesn’t matter whether you are nine or 50.

“One of the things the girls said to me this morning, they said: ‘Does this mean you’ll be speaking to Mr Trump?

“I said ‘yes it will, darlings’.”

Mr Morrison’s first phone call with the US President might not have been as heated as Malcolm Turnbull’s, which Mr Trump described as the “the worst call by far”.

But it wasn’t without a hiccup.

Australia’s new Prime Minister confessed to the US President that he didn’t share his love of golf.

“I did tell him I was a rubbish golfer,” Mr Morrison told The Sunday Mail yesterday.

“I am not quite sure that term is well known in the US so there are other phrases I have and I’ll have to be careful of using Shire-colloquialisms in international engagements.”