Miranda Devine: Australians spoiled rotten under PM Scott Morrison

To see Australia’s future under the leadership of Anthony Albanese, one must only look to illegal millions pouring over the US border, writes Miranda Devine.

One thing is for sure. No matter which way the next federal election goes, history will look far more kindly on Scott Morrison than any of the current crop of Twitter narks and lemon-sucking pundits who nitpick at him ­relentlessly for the most trivial transgressions.

After a global pandemic and attendant recession, if the worst criticism people still have to make against the Prime Minister is that, back in 2019, he went on a Christmas holiday to Hawaii with his family ­during a bad bushfire season, he can’t be doing so badly.

That holiday was a main focus of a recent 60 Minutes interview with Morrison and his wife Jenny and it took up almost five minutes of a 40- minute Four Corners special assessing his prime ministership.

In a tongue-in-cheek reference to the much-maligned Hawaii holiday, Scott Morrison played a ukulele during his 60 Minutes interview. Picture: Nine

Seriously, the mountain made out of that molehill was ridiculous at the time and only looks more farcical as time goes on.

Australians are spoiled rotten if that’s all they have to worry about. Try living under the Biden regime in the United States for a year, with two million illegal migrants pouring over the southern border.

Or out-of-control government spending that has flooded the US economy with trillions of dollars and triggered the highest inflation rate in 40 years; at 7.5 per cent it is more than double Australia’s rate of 3.5 per cent.

Or racist polices which deliberately discriminate against white people, including rationing health care on the basis of race.

Or choosing personnel for key jobs such as Supreme Court justice and vice president based solely on their genitalia and the colour of their skin.

Or radical leftists installed to head powerful government departments who make Safe Schools founder Roz Ward look normal.

Skyrocketing petrol prices, serial foreign affairs blunders, a deliberately divisive President whose cognitive health is uncertain … I could go on.

But the point is that Australians are lucky they have a leader who has managed to balance the economy with public health through the pandemic, while also safeguarding ­national security at a time of serious peril.

From a distant vantage point, the vitriol daily heaped on the PM is inexplicable, except as a function of ­twitterati bluechecks wanting a change of leadership.

But the PM’s frank and sensible wife believes voters will see through the ruse.

“I think the Australian people, on the whole, they totally know what’s going on,” Jenny Morrison told 60 Minutes.

Jenny Morrison leapt to her husband’s defence in the couple’s sit-down with Nine’s Karl Stefanovic. Picture: Nine

“I think they have been very disappointed with seeing some of the things that are going on … and sometimes the loudest people take up the most space.

“There’s a lot of other people out there that are just concentrating on their families and just having a good life and I think Scott can give Australians the best of the life that they desire.”

Asked what is her husband’s worst trait, she said it was that “he’s married to the job. But we [she and their two daughters] have to take a back seat. Running this country is incredibly important and I get that.”

That is the point. Morrison didn’t check out when the going got tough. He focused on the daunting problems facing the country and tried to find solutions.

Sure he made mistakes, which he freely admitted in that National Press Club speech, which was overshadowed by cheap gotcha journalism.

The Prime Minister was made the victim of gotcha journalism during his address to the National Press Club earlier this month. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

But few Prime Ministers have had to cope with parallel existential crises – Covid, recession and an increasingly aggressive China taking advantage of a vacuum in global leadership.

60 Minutes questioner Karl Stefanovic harped on the PM’s supposed lack of empathy, judged, of course, on that dreaded 2019 Hawaiian holiday.

The empathy criticism always seems to baffle Morrison, who is hardly an automaton in his personal dealings with people.

But, again, Jenny Morrison cut through the malarkey: “He’s all about problem solving and that can come across sometimes as serious or ­uncaring,” she said. “But it isn’t that at all. He’s seriously focused and task-oriented.”

An Anthony Albanese prime ministership would jeopardise our borders.

Focus has been the hallmark of Morrison in every portfolio he has had and no one can accuse him of failing to deliver on the toughest jobs. He was the Treasurer who had to clean up after Joe Hockey and the Rudd/Gillard dream team.

Miranda Devine Opinion column artwork. Scott Morrison's likely electioral defeat would mean a return to

He was the immigration minister who had to stop the boats that Labor had invited to our shores.

And, yes, the boats will inevitably start again under Labor if Anthony Albanese becomes Prime Minister because, no matter what he says ­between now and the election, Albo’s previous vacillation on border protection gives him away. Open borders are in his party’s DNA.

As for the so-called conservatives currently undermining Morrison on the eve of a crucial election, they will wear the blame for the illegal migrant disaster to come if he loses, not to mention the threat to the economy of Labor’s climate nuttiness.

But now the border is secure, the economy is relatively stable, and Australia is emerging from the pandemic better off than most countries.

When the Coalition should be unified and ready for battle, it seems there are lily-livered opportunists in its own ranks who have decided an election loss is inevitable so they may as well kick the PM when he’s down.

The Canberra classes with their superficial preoccupations have ­always written off Morrison, but the Australian people usually get it right.

Miranda Devine is in New York to cover current affairs for The Daily Telegraph