Leadership can’t take a holiday, we need PM out in front

Scott Morrison during Question Time, a day after Craig Kelly quit the Liberal Party. Picture: Getty Images

Three standout events so far this year have seen the “bad Scotty”, the one who took off for Hawaii during the bushfires, the one who doesn’t get it, the one the “good Scotty” is powerless to control, take charge. They were the insurrection at the Capitol in Washington; allowing Craig Kelly’s damaging rogue behaviour to continue unchecked for so long; and the handling of rape allegations by former staffer Brittany Higgins.

Scott Morrison’s reputation as a tough, clever political player, forged by his outmanoeuvring of Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull to win the leadership, ­cemented by his crushing of Bill Shorten at the 2019 election, should have taken a hit.

Instead, Morrison was rescued with a little help from his friends at Facebook, but mainly by the ­arrival of the COVID vaccine. The pandemic, which has destroyed the lives and careers of millions of people, has rescued his prime ministership and seemingly secured his path to another victory.

Still, that’s no reason for his frequent lapses to be excused or ignored. A respectable Newspoll does not exonerate the Prime Minister or his near eight-year-old government from legal, political or moral failures. It does not excuse the fibbing and fudging over sexual assault matters and lots of other things, too.

It is mystifying that someone as politically astute as Morrison can manage to make so many dumb calls. His detachment from central issues, whether it be quarantine, confessing his wife had to tell him how he should react to an alleged rape, or his staff allegedly failing to tell him about the ­alleged assault on a young woman until the story broke, goes to his character and his perception of his job. Perhaps he provided the best leitmotif after he came back from Hawaii: I don’t hold a hose, mate.

He has raised the white flag on using the COVID crisis to pursue reform. He long ago decided to follow whatever path state and territory leaders chose, landing on the place of least resistance. They have helped keep him afloat ­although his office somehow “forgot” to invite Gladys Berejiklian (the country’s best leader) to his vaccination celebration on Sunday. Gratitude only extends so far.

On top of that, he reckons persisting with policy reform is a vanity project. This betrays a fearful approach to leadership that insults the courage or perseverance of his predecessors who changed tax, retirement incomes, the micro-economy, social laws, disability support. That is one ticker with a faint beat which sells Australians short.

Senior members of the government say the next election, which they think will more likely be in early March next year — unless an unworkable parliament gives Morrison the excuse to break a promise to serve the full term and go later this year — will have a headline focus on jobs, the economy and the handling of COVID, rather than leadership as such.

Given the closeness of the party vote, the narrowness of the government’s margin, they think it will boil down to 151 by-elections, making the on-the-ground campaign and the quality of local candidates paramount.

Although colleagues marvel at Morrison’s sustained high ­approval rating, they concede it hasn’t translated into votes and may yet evaporate by the election. This could happen if the pandemic has ended (unlikely), if there are serious problems with the vaccination rollout beyond a few hiccups (possible) or the “bad Scotty” gets a few more gallops (likely given recent history). Within hours after the deadly rampage in the US Capitol, Morrison repeatedly refused to say ­Donald Trump bore “some ­responsibility” for inciting it. Morrison also refused to condemn his backbencher George Christensen for spreading the same kind of loopy conspiracy theories as Trump, citing Christensen’s right to free speech, coincidentally one of the arguments used by Trump­ians to defend the former president’s despicable behaviour.

Australia’s sovereignty would have been enhanced if he had put some distance between the government and an unhinged former president. Unless he was worried he would alienate the same kind of people Trump had cultivated.

Eleven days later, Morrison ­asserted on 2GB he had “echoed” the sentiments of other leaders (Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau) critical of Trump. He had not done any such thing. Shame on him twice: first for refusing to condemn Trump, then for claiming he had.

He personally secured Kelly’s preselection in 2018, even though the Liberals would have retained the seat (and will again). For months, Morrison’s office was aware of allegations of inappropriate behaviour with young women by a male staffer in Kelly’s office. Nothing happened. For months Kelly was allowed to disseminate medical misinformation giving succour to anti-vaxxers and other assorted nutters, ostensibly because Morrison didn’t want to elevate the issue.

Kelly ratted anyway, which could eventually work in Morrison’s favour, so a principled early intervention would have cost him nothing and won him more ­respect. Dogs and fleas come to mind. As leader he should have moved swiftly to counter Christensen’s and Kelly’s dangerous posts, one undermining faith in elections, the other in vaccinations. He didn’t.

As leader it is also his duty to provide safe workplaces. He could have acted convincingly more than two years ago after his own women MPs, including Linda Reynolds, complained about the bullying, abusive culture inside the Liberal Party. He didn’t.

There are people struggling to believe Morrison did not know for almost two years of Higgins’ allegation she was raped in the early hours of March 23, 2019 in the ­office of Reynolds (then defence industry minister) by a fellow staffer. Even if you accept that is true, it is beyond belief that his own press office, receiving formal questions from news.com.au journalist Samantha Maiden on Friday, February 12, waited until Monday morning when the story broke to tell him.

Unless those who work for him are as intimidated, infatuated or indoctrinated as some media types initiated into the cult of ScoMo. Or they are loyal enough to cop the rap. There will be more tears and there will be dismissals before it’s over, that is for sure.

Throughout, the one person who has remained impressively resolute in her fight for justice and change is Higgins. It has taken its toll on Reynolds, who was admitted to hospital on Wednesday by her cardiologist.

It is true, as Morrison says, that assaults like the one alleged happen everywhere. However, they should not happen in the national parliament, and it is the job of the Prime Minister to lead the change on this front. Emphasis on lead.