Morrison’s no Trump or Boris — and that’s a great thing
While the leaders of the US and the UK offer daily theatrics, Scott Morrison’s slow, controlling approach is frustrating even to some of his own MPs — but that’s what his ‘quiet Australians’ seem to want, writes David Speers.
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In London, Boris Johnson, the wild-haired new British Prime Minister, declared it was time to “ping off the guy ropes” of negativity and begin the “do or die” march to Brexit. Buckle up Britons.
In Washington, the President lurched from controversial racist tweets to celebrating his critics’ dismal failure to find a path to impeachment despite seven hours of questioning special counsel Robert Mueller. The daily Donald Trump roller coaster hurtles on.
In Canberra, by contrast, Scott Morrison was this week determined to dial up the boring.
Australian politics and its practitioners have long been influenced by what happens in Washington and London. Policy ideas, tactics, campaign slogans and even backroom personnel are regularly drawn from our two great friends and allies.
But there’s no sign Australia is about to follow the US and UK into this new era of freewheeling, crash-through, abrasive and sometimes abusive, personality-cult leadership.
Morrison may share some policy similarities with Trump and Johnson, but he couldn’t be more different in political style.
He sees his ordinariness as a virtue. He wants to represent the “quiet Australians” with a quiet, calm, methodical government that delivers what it promised and not much more. He is determined not to surprise. And now he’s determined to stop anyone else in the Coalition delivering a surprise either.
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A handful of Liberals stepped up calls this week to change tack on superannuation. They reckon this whole forced retirement savings idea has gone far enough. In particular, they want to stop the scheduled increase in the compulsory superannuation guarantee from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent by 2025, arguing the extra money would be better going into workers’ pockets directly than being locked into their retirement savings accounts.
Plenty of others in the government privately agree that this is a legitimate debate to have.
But it’s not something Scott Morrison flagged before the election, which let’s not forget, was fought largely over what he called Labor’s “retiree tax”.
Rightly or wrongly, any whittling away of the promised superannuation increase would be described as a “retiree tax” by Morrison’s opponents.
This explains why the Finance Minister and Treasurer went from “no plans” for any such change, to “ruling out” any such change this week.
New Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg was equally shot down, when he used his first speech in parliament to suggest making superannuation voluntary for those earning less than $50,000.
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These ideas can all be explored in the upcoming review of retirement incomes, Morrison said, but they won’t be implemented. At least not in this term of parliament. Any changes along these lines would need to go to another election.
Separate backbench frolics over increasing the Newstart Allowance and embracing nuclear power have also been frustrating Morrison. He again told Coalition MPs this week to stick to “internal processes” rather than “disrespecting” each other by freelancing publicly with policy ideas.
Liberals typically hold dear their right to an individual view. They’re not the robots they see their Labor opponents to be. Over recent years, though, things got more than a little out of hand. The internal wars and wildly different positions over everything from energy policy to same sex marriage created an atmosphere of chaos.
Morrison is now trying to restore some order, even if it is coming across as a touch heavy-handed. One Cabinet Minister privately called him a “control freak” at the end of the week.
How Coalition MPs respond to the Morrison era of steady, controlled, even boring government, will be the true test of cohesion over the next three years.
Those trying to carve out a name for themselves by venturing forth in the media with new policy ideas aren’t likely to find themselves on the fast-track to promotion.
Those who behave will be rewarded, perhaps with a Dorothy Dixer in Question Time, or a cameo in one of the Prime Minister’s slick social media videos highlighting the government’s weekly achievements.
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This week’s video showed Morrison in perpetual motion, walking towards the camera, spruiking his legislative victories on tax cuts, the Drought Fund and new Temporary Exclusion Orders, his meeting with the PNG Prime Minister and his orthodox public service appointments.
It was all very controlled, scripted and carefully edited. This sort of media management and incremental policy progress is a far cry from the stream of consciousness we get from Donald Trump on Twitter or the seat-of-the-pants performance we see from Boris Johnson when he steps up to a microphone.
Journalists and some voters may at times prefer the flamboyance and unpredictability of Trump and Johnson, but that’s just not Morrison. Nor is there any sign that’s what the “quiet Australians” actually want.
If they can keep their jobs and finally see some wages growth (and that’s still a big if), these voters will most likely be happy.
For those looking for political theatre, try Washington or London.
David Speers is Sky News political editor.
Originally published as Morrison’s no Trump or Boris — and that’s a great thing
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