Steve Price: Scott Morrison’s lame TV stunts must end, or he’ll be voted out by the tribe
Scott Morrison’s pathetic TV stunts, like washing a woman’s hair, must stop if he wants to survive as PM because we need a leader, not a spin doctor.
Opinion
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Running Australia shouldn’t be like some political version of the TV show Survivor.
It seems the idea is that the tribe has spoken on the future of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his expulsion has been decided.
The pile on has taken on - as these things tend to do - a life of its own. And to listen to the media mob, led by the ABC and a group of prominent commentators, snuffed out Morrison’s
political torch.
Scott Morrison has become the easiest pile on since Novak Djokovic. It shouldn’t be this way; the future of Australia is too important.
The Prime Minister has brought much of this on himself, and I have highlighted in the past his tin ear and cringe-worthy pivot to dumb media stunts, that make no sense and make
him look stupid.
Last Friday at Coco’s hair salon at Mt Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula where the most powerful man in Australia allowed himself – God forbid it was his idea – to dip his hands in
warm water and massage a young woman’s head is beyond belief.
To do it in the middle of a bruising debate about his attitude towards women, and then in chitchat ask whether he ought to gossip about the young woman’s weekend, was breathtakingly idiotic.
It doesn’t mean though the alternative to Morrison, as the left tribe would hope - Anthony Albanese - should be simply crowned the successor and allowed to walk into office in
May.
It’s time for the Coalition to get some courage and to start dumping these pathetic media stunts before Morrison really does go the way of a Survivor evictee.
Can you imagine John Howard or Bob Hawke allowing themselves to be used by their media team to do something as demeaning as that washing bowl stunt turned out to be?
Scott, you are the PM mate, and despite your marketing DNA and the belief your connection to quiet Australians can win you another term, you are kidding yourself.
The Cronulla Sharks hat and cold beer and those weird curry nights on your barbecue worked last time but this time, after two years of Covid misery, we need leadership not more
stunts.
Sack whoever in your team organised the Coco’s photo opportunity and start leading us. If you can’t do that you don’t deserve to be there.
Ignore the vocal tribe acting as some hit squad painting you as an out of touch, old white guy, who thinks the disgraceful treatment of women is acceptable in the workplace. We know you don’t think like that.
Refuse to be painted as a racist or a sexist or a bully, despite the loose cannons in your own party slagging you in text messages.
Ignore ABC shows like The Drum who let biased academics, who are mates of your opponent Anthony Albanese, bag you for eating white sliced bread as a sign you don’t understand the working class. That’s insulting garbage.
Leadership, not cringe-worthy stunts for the nightly news, is your way out of the hole you have dug for yourself.
International border announcements earlier this week was an opportunity lost. After locking Australia up for nearly two years, you should have used freedom day announcements as one of a number of strong decisions to unify Australia. West Australia should have been told that you intend to challenge their border closures in the High Court as unconstitutional.
Sure, it may have cost seats in Perth but the tide has turned there and they want freedom like the rest of us.
You could have announced an extra public holiday to celebrate the border openings or extended the Melbourne Cup from a Victorian to a national holiday, to celebrate Australia getting back to normal.
To recognise the Queens 70th year on the throne you could have made a pledge that under the Coalition there would be no new referendum on a republic while she is alive.
As PM, you could have demanded mask and vaccination mandates now have no place in a largely vaccinated Australia and made it clear to obstructive state premiers that you are
back in charge.
Instead, you again let yourself appear weak with at least two state premiers quickly threatening to only allow boosted travellers into their states, even though you control the
borders.
An opportunity lost, and then we discover the stunts will continue, allowing a cocktail wielding Karl Stefanovic into the kitchen of Kirribilli House in Sydney like some pesky
neighbour to watch you wash the dishes for a Sunday night 60 Minutes interview.
Then your wife Jenny joins in, and when asked what she would tell her teenage self, knowing what she knows now, she then replies she would run.
Prime Minister unless you change tactics, and quickly, that’s exactly what the Australian electorate intends to do - run in the other direction.
You proved last election you could turn things around and you put it down to a miracle. You need more than a miracle this time but have time on your side and an ordinary opponent.
PM you need to inspire Australians and not get sucked into any more lame stunts.
Over to you.
DISLIKES
The plague of e-scooters turning the Melbourne CBD into a rubbish tip.
A waste of time in the police investigation into the Kevin Sheedy mask saga.
Aged care again the centre of Covid outbreaks needing military intervention.
Mask mandates: Time to consign them to the bin and get back to the office.
LIKES
The staff in emergency at Rosebud Hospital looking after me a week ago.
Formula 1 deciding taking a knee and other political protests are no longer acceptable.
The spirit of our winter Olympians battling Covid restrictions and still winning and smiling.
International borders after nearly two years shut, finally open to tourists.
Australia Today with Steve Price can be heard live from 7am weekdays via the LiSTNR app.
Originally published as Steve Price: Scott Morrison’s lame TV stunts must end, or he’ll be voted out by the tribe
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