Morrison’s most demeaning move came when he lobbed Katherine Deves into Warringah, not to win the former Liberal seat back from Zali Steggall, but to attract the “women’s vote” in outer suburban seats.
Morrison assumed two things: first, that a moral panic over trans issues infuses working-class seats; and, second, that women voters would flock to him for trotting out a slogan, on the eve of an election, that women’s sport should be protected from trans athletes.
Women are not mugs. Voters in the outer suburban seats the Liberals lost, especially in NSW, were not fooled by Morrison’s cheap political ploy. Putting aside the extremist language Deves resorted to more than once, women voters may have noticed that Morrison did nothing as prime minister to protect women’s sport.
This ploy was orthodox ScoMo marketing: a slick slogan, no proven substance while in office, translating to nil conviction about the issue. And it flopped.
The sweep of teals, all women, into seats held by moderate Liberals – Josh Frydenberg, Tim Wilson, Dave Sharma, Jason Falinski, Trent Zimmerman – was a firm reminder that many women in inner city seats were disgusted by Morrison’s cynical political exploitation of Deves and trans issues to win an election.
The desire among teal voters for an end to the insufferable climate wars in Australia is equally potent. The real question – of climate policy costs on the poor, especially during the coming economic challenges – will be far less thrilling than scribbling “1” next to a teal candidate on a ballot paper.
That said, time and again, Morrison drove women way from the Liberals. On the hustings on Saturday morning, he was asked about the gender pay gap. He expressed last-minute concern, said the gap was too high. Whether you believe the gender pay gap is real or a carefully crafted fiction – as I do – what self-respecting woman would regard Morrison’s last-ditch embrace of the issue as anything but a desperate attempt to fool female voters?
Days earlier, when bovver boy Morrison switched from relishing his bulldozer mode to promising women that he would be more empathetic, it was the final insult to female voters who are turned off by the growing viciousness, shallowness and polarisation of our two-party system. Women don’t need a SNAG in The Lodge they want to date, just a person of either gender who takes them seriously.
Alas, Morrison’s lack of authenticity around issues that especially concern female voters was not an election campaign revelation. He exposed the same disdain many times throughout his one term as leader. No prime minister should need his wife to explain that an alleged rape in a minister’s office is a serious matter. Just as a sound CEO would take charge of an alleged rape in an executive’s office, it fell to Morrison to show he understood the gravity of what became public in February last year – for the people involved, and for the reputation of his government, and for the parliament.
Morrison’s flaccid response to growing unease among women about his leadership was a quick reshuffle a few weeks later. He promoted a few more women, and threw the word “women” into their titles, as if they were new recruits to a gender studies department.
His promise of a “fresh filter” in all matters to do with women was cheap optics. Every minister should be committed to good outcomes for all Australians – men and women. If ministers need to be reminded about “women issues” when addressing economic matters or policies around safety, they should be working in a gender studies department.
When Morrison labelled Marise Payne as the “Prime Minister for Women”, it served only to cement his lack of authenticity. It betrayed a mid-level managerial understanding of leadership. And it reminded voters, especially women, how useless Payne has been as the minister for women in the Morrison government.
Remember that neither Payne nor the PM did anything in office to support Nicolle Flint when she faced a torrent of vicious abuse from a phalanx of left-wing attack dogs. No wonder she left the Morrison government. No wonder the Morrison government lost Boothby. Liberal voters can only hold their nose for so long before they become former Liberal voters. Teal candidate Jo Dyer turned out to be an abject fizzer in this election given the success of other teal independents. Instead, Labor secured Boothby for the first time in 70 years.
The fact the Liberals are on the nose in the Liberal seat of Sturt in South Australia, held for decades by Chris Pyne, shows that even when there isn’t a teal candidate, Morrison sowed a wind for change with his inauthentic leadership, especially among female voters.
Now the Liberal Party must reap that resulting whirlwind across the country – a hollowed out party, no longer a broad church with firm foundations that straddle the inner city and outer suburbia. Morrison’s legacy is a double whammy – losing votes from the party’s conservative base and losing women who are inner city small-l liberals. Women across the country deserve a decent Liberal Party. If John Howard could offer that, so can a new Liberal leader.
What’s the half-life of a nuclear policy kerfuffle anyway?
Have you seen the Coalition’s nuclear policy? Have a good rummage around. Try to retrace your steps. Maybe it has fallen between the couch cushions?
Long march of big tech not at odds with the divine
As humanity pushes the boundaries of science and artificial intelligence, God is waiting in the wings.
This election result is a slam-dunk repudiation of Scott Morrison’s cynical attitude towards women voters. The former prime minister took women for granted and, unsurprisingly, they kicked his government out of office.