Annika Smethurst: Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s confidence has taken a hit
Since returning from Hawaii, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been on the backfoot and, as a consequence, his performance has dropped. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where it went wrong, but three things stand out, writes Annika Smethurst.
Opinion
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If Scott Morrison was a footballer, you’d describe him as a confidence player. Free of pressure, he can perform and often defy expectations.
Take the federal election when he had nothing to lose and unexpectedly pulled off a win against Labor.
But, for the first time since taking over the leadership, Morrison’s confidence appears shot.
Since returning from Hawaii he has been on the backfoot and under pressure for his response to the fire emergency. Consequently, his performance has dropped.
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where it went wrong, but three things stand out.
The first is his tone.
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Standing at a lectern in Sydney last week, Morrison repeatedly — on more than 12 occasions — explained how the fire response was a state issue. He is right, but he sounded defensive, when Australians wanted leadership.
Emergency responses are traditional organised and managed at a state level and commonwealth support is supplied when called upon, as is the case now.
But Australians in the fire zone and those struggling to breath in cities blanketed in smoke need leadership not a lesson in the in the distribution of powers.
With mail services down, national freight routes closed, petrol shortages and the army evacuating thousands of Australians, this crisis needs national leadership.
Morrison’s second problem started in Waikiki.
It was easier to defend the Prime Minister when he was holidaying in Hawaii and people wanted him back. As a politician, not a fireman, his ability to respond was hampered by his skill set and he is entitled to a holiday.
But the timing and secrecy of his trip has had unforeseen consequences. Many of his coalition colleagues blame his office for giving him a bum steer.
Optics matter and images of the Prime Minister and his wife watching the sunset on a beach in Waikiki while fires raged at home will be difficult to erase from the minds of Australians.
To accuse him of being absent is wrong.
The prime minister has visited survivors and those helping with the recovery.
He did this knowing there would be a risk he would be snubbed or verbally abused. He did so anyway.
But the decision to pose with cricketers and his comments suggesting the bushfire crisis was happening against the backdrop of the Test is the type of damaging misstep which could irreversibly damage his leadership.
Another big mistake this government has made is to assume that its 2019 election victory was also a rejection of climate action.
Australians may have been rightly fearful of Labor’s ambitious and uncosted plan to reduce carbon emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. But to assume a vote for the Coalition was a vote against the environment will backfire.
Morrison is right to suggest that no single environmental policy by any one Government anywhere in the world can be linked to any one fire event. But to assume the fires and drought haven’t triggered a public debate, and anxiety, about Australia’s changing climate is wrong.
Australians and the global community have already linked these fires to climate change and it is impossible to unscramble that egg.
Morrison’s early absence, his defensiveness and global anxiety about climate change are now threatening to unravel his prime ministership.
It’s a dangerous combination for Morrison and his team who must carefully navigate his approach and longer-term policy response in order to reboot his political fortunes and salvage his reputation.