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Andrew Bolt: Labor’s hypocrisy revealed in political hanging of Scott Morrison

The sooner power-obsessed Scott Morrison quits, the better — but the hypocrites raging at him are the ones who plan to do the real damage.

Morrison was 'defensive' and 'passive-aggressive' in his response to portfolio saga

Check out the hypocrites now raging at Scott Morrison’s bonkers decision to make himself the secret minister of five departments when he was prime minister.

Spare me Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spluttering that this is “very contrary to our Westminster system” and wondering if the Constitution’s rules were broken.

Spare me former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull accusing Morrison of “sinister stuff” that was “not something we associate with our form of democracy”.

Oh, don’t mistake me. Morrison is a power-obsessed fool who should resign from parliament as a warning to any future prime ministers who get the dangerous idea they’re god’s gift to frightened voters.

None of Morrison excuses make sense.

No truly Liberal prime minister, supposedly devoted to freedom and limited government, would also make himself health minister, social security minister, finance minister, treasurer and resources minister – and without telling even four of the five ministers who thought they were in charge.

Spare me Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spluttering that this is ‘very contrary to our Westminster system’. Picture: Gary Ramage
Spare me Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spluttering that this is ‘very contrary to our Westminster system’. Picture: Gary Ramage

Morrison claims he had to do this because of the pandemic: what if one of the ministers got sick?

Nonsense. If they got sick they could work on in isolation, as did Defence Minister Peter Dutton.

If they got too sick to work, a replacement could be sworn-in in just hours, and publicly.

In fact, the timeline confirms that Morrison, much like Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, just got carried away with a saviour complex and grew ever hungrier for power.

Morrison became the secret health minister in March 2020, with the cooperation of the real Minister, Greg Hunt. But over the next 14 months he got the Governor-General to make him minister of four more departments, even after the virus panic had eased.

Indeed, the pandemic excuse was dropped. Morrison even got himself made resources minister last year so he could scrap an offshore gas project supported by the real minister, Keith Pitt.

So, yes, the sooner Morrison quits as an MP the better. A message must be sent: we reject that type of authoritarian leadership.

For all Scott Morrison’s idiocy, what he did was in the past and made zero difference to voters. Picture: AFP
For all Scott Morrison’s idiocy, what he did was in the past and made zero difference to voters. Picture: AFP

In fact, the Liberals should be ashamed to have Albanese, a Socialist Left Labor man, of all people, now lecture them to respect constitutional traditions that limit the power of our leaders: “We have a non-presidential system of government in this country, but what we had from Scott Morrison is a centralisation of power”.

But hang on. A lecture from Albanese on the damage to our “system of government”. A lecture from Turnbull, too?

Should we laugh or be disgusted?

For all Morrison’s idiocy, what he did was in the past and made zero difference to voters — apart from that ban on a gas project. And if that ban was so terrible, why doesn’t Albanese now overturn it?

So real damage done: zero.

But Albanese, Turnbull and the entire Labor government plan to do real damage with their own insane plan to change the constitution and system of government that they’re weeping for today.

They want to include an Aboriginal-only parliament, written forever into our constitution.

Malcolm Turnbull and Anthony Albanese are backing a ‘wild’ change that threatens real harm. jobs
Malcolm Turnbull and Anthony Albanese are backing a ‘wild’ change that threatens real harm. jobs

Turnbull once rightly opposed what Labor gives the sweet and fluffy name of “Voice”, calling it “divisive” and effectively a “third chamber of parliament” that could totally disrupt our real parliament.

He was right. Such a parliament is not just racist, the start of apartheid, but an insult to the 11 federal politicians in our real parliament who identify as Aborigines.

It could also cause chaos by having a near-veto on timely decision-making by our federal parliament by demanding consultation – backed by Labor’s rewritten Constitution — on everything affecting Aborigines, from defence to tax reform and education.

But this week Turnbull announced he now backed the Aboriginal-only parliament he’d opposed because … it was now popular.

True. An ABC presenter asked: “What made you change your mind?”

Turnbull’s response: “Well, it has achieved enormous momentum.”

Even more laughably, Turnbull in that same interview gave us every reason to believe Albanese’s racist plan will cause infinitely more scary change and damage than anything Morrison could have even dreamed of.

“I have misgivings,” Turnbull admitted. “It will be an enormous change to the way our parliamentary system works…This is conferring real power, real political power, to the Voice… The Voice will be powerful and it will be heard, and it will be heeded. It can’t be abolished… Could well be a wild ride, yeah.”

So Turnbull and Albanese back a “wild” change that threaten real harm, yet now stage tantrums about Morrison’s secret jobs, which harmed no one?

What astonishing hypocrites.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Labor’s hypocrisy revealed in political hanging of Scott Morrison

Andrew Bolt
Andrew BoltColumnist

With a proven track record of driving the news cycle, Andrew Bolt steers discussion, encourages debate and offers his perspective on national affairs. A leading journalist and commentator, Andrew’s columns are published in the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph and Advertiser. He writes Australia's most-read political blog and hosts The Bolt Report on Sky News Australia at 7.00pm Monday to Thursday.

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Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-labors-hypocrisy-revealed-in-political-hanging-of-scott-morrison/news-story/e8cf471e9f910a2426af07d9cc2213c0