Scott Morrison forced out of Sydney office

Why has the Prime Minister spent the past week taking briefings and holding press conferences in Canberra and not Sydney?

Why has Scott Morrison spent the past week taking briefings and holding press conferences in Canberra and not Sydney? Possibly, as some of his colleagues have speculated, it’s because after realising he has all the authority of the “do not tumble dry” label, Scotty from Marketing decided he needed to look prime ministerial and lead from the safety of The Bubble. Or is it because his Sydney CBD offices are undergoing taxpayer-funded renovations? Two Strewth field agents spied paper being put up over the glass walls around the Prime Minister’s suite in the Commonwealth Parliament Offices before Christmas. Weeks later it’s still there, hiding what looks like construction work. A spokesman from the Department of Finance tells Strewth a “range of building works” is under way in “common areas and some offices” at 1 Bligh Street. When we inquired further we received this rather poetic piece of public-servant-speak: “Repairs to floors were required to remediate damage from water ingress from another floor of the building.” We know Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s office had some very minor damage repaired last year, but the department refused to answer questions about which offices are out of action or how much money is being spent. However, it did say: “Any costs associated with building works are covered by insurance arrangements.”

Government spill

There may be a Liberal leadership spill scheduled for midday on Monday in Tasmania, but it’s NSW government staff who have discovered first-hand that politics is a slippery business. Literally; the Department of Premier and Cabinet says it is aware of at least three employees slipping in the lobby of 52 Martin Place last Tuesday. Staff were warned to be careful after the floors were polished last week but a spokesperson says none of the three (who have not been identified but we’re assured are not politicians or state ministerial staff) needed to be taken to hospital.

Air grievance

The New Zealand high commission in Canberra has cancelled its Waitangi Day celebrations on February 6 because of “ongoing air quality issues” in the smoky Australian capital. The high commission tells Strewth it hopes to host a similar event later in the year to mark the 180th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the agreement between the British Crown and New Zealand Maori rangatira (leaders) that led it becoming a British colony.

Electing to get ready

Attention, election watchers; on Sky News on Sunday Albanese speculated on the timing of the next poll: “I suspect that the window for going to an election is sometime between October 2021 and March 2022. That’s our plans. That’s our timeframe. We will be ready to go.”

Climate warning

Senior members of the Prime Minister’s staff (including Morrison’s principal private secretary, Yaron Finkelstein) have been tasked with warning climate change doubters in the government to toe the line. This paper’s ownPeter van Onselentweeted: “When I asked Craig Kellyto come on The Project last Sunday he was told by the PM’s office he couldn’t do it. I didn’t know who though. So much for the party of free speech … a functionary telling an elected MP he can’t do media.” We wonder if the Prime Minister’s office has been as blunt as NSW Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, who posted an image to Instagram that read: “Climate change is not a belief. It is based on science. We have no time for conspiracy theories when there is so much to be done.”

Vale Derek Fowlds

Actor Derek Fowlds, best known for playing private secretary Bernard Woolley in the political satire Yes Minister and its sequel Yes Prime Minister, has moved on to that great meeting room in the sky, aged 82. Strewth remembers the sitcom’s first episode when Woolley tells the minister (who wants a new chair but not one that spins): “It used to be said there were two kinds of chairs to go with two kinds of ministers: one sort that folds up instantly and the other sort that goes round and round in circles.” In another, Woolley offers to help when the minister is inundated with correspondence.

Woolley: “I’ll just say, ‘The minister has asked me to thank you for your letter’ and something like ‘The matter is under consideration’, or even ‘under active consideration’.” Minister: “What’s the difference?”

Woolley: “Well, ‘under consideration’ means we’ve lost the file, ‘under active consideration’ means we’re trying to find it.”

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