How good are Scott Morrison’s enthusiastic responses?

Scott Morrison got in a question about the local federal member nice and early: ‘How good is Trevor Evans?’

As Scott Morrison kicked off a speech in Brisbane yesterday, he got in a question about the local federal member nice and early: “How good is Trevor Evans?” It is the sort of query the PM is particularly fond of making. Like a quality control manager on a perky quest to outsource his work, the Prime Minister just keeps asking. “How good is Spotify?” he inquired in Cairns last Wednesday. “How good is John Howard?” was the short quiz on January 13, while December 25 brought: “How good is Christmas?” Sometimes it comes in longer meditations, such as this one on Fijian rugby league when he was in the Pacific nation on January 18: “It’s not hard to see why Fiji’s national team the Bati is such a powerhouse, now ranked fifth in the world and a World Cup semi-finalist in 2017 … Few can forget the win over the Kiwis in the quarter-finals. How good was that?” And while he was it: “We’re celebrating women’s sport. How good is it see the girls out there playing and matching it up with the boys?” Quite so.

The eternal question

Variety being one of life’s 11 secret herbs and spices, ScoMo will create a “How good” hamper, such as at a morning tea on January 5: “When I look at this logo here for the McGrath Foundation, that’s the word that springs to mind and how good is Sarah and how good is Rikki?” It wouldn’t be the same without a bit of ScoMo’s favourite family of dishes, such as on December 20 after dining with the troops in Iraq: “Last night it was a Sri Lankan chicken curry. How good is that, by the way?” While in the neighbourhood, he learned that sometimes when you have a go you immediately have to have another go: “So, how good is the Seventh Brigade? That wasn’t a very enthusiastic response, General Campbell. How good is the Seventh Brigade?” It truly is a question sans frontieres. Here he is on air with Ben Fordham on December 13, vis-a-vis the host’s previous interviewee: “How good is she?” And on December 10, when holding forth on getting the energy mix right for companies: “You want them to stand on their own two feet, so how good is that?” November 28 found him at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s annual dinner, reflecting on the growth of youth employment: “How good is that?” A week earlier he was talking to the Business Council of Australia about the same thing; because ScoMo’s a streamlined operation, the same subject elicited the same question: “How good is that?” It got some northern exposure in Papua New Guinea on November 18 when he spoke of a local electrification initiative and, understandably, demanded of gathered hacks: “Now, how good is that?” In Singapore four days earlier he reflected on the value of volunteers: “How good are you?”

But if you reach back to the dawn of the ScoMo prime ministership, when he went on Australia All Over with Ian McNamara, you’ll find a time when it was not even a rhetorical question: “Listening to your program, you just find out how good Australians are.”

Bowen’s capital-ism

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen continues to hone the truculence of his press release headings. They’re all in capital letters and it feels a bit churlish to reproduce them otherwise. Among the hits from just this year we have: “LIBERAL CHAOS AND DIVISION GREETS 2019 LIKE AN OLD FRIEND”; “THE LIBERALS’ NEVER-ENDING PROTECTION RACKET CONTINUES” (surely that “continues” is redundant); and “LABOR HAS BETTER SMALL BUSINESS TAX PLAN AS TREASURER LIES, AGAIN”. Only yesterday, Bowen modulated effortlessly between long (“LIBERAL PARTY TREATING AUSTRALIANS LIKE MUGS BY HOLDING ONTO ROYAL COMMISSION FINAL REPORT”) and short: “MORRISON JOBS GAFFE”.

The big R

Meanwhile, Bill Shorten was asked: “Does Australia risk falling into recession under a Labor government?” He went on for some 355 words (concluding with a promise of “stability with a sensible plan”), but a pedant might note he never quite got around to answering. Speaking of which, the PM had a dance on Radio National when Sabra Lane asked about his imminent speech.

Lane: “It’s a veiled warning, though, is it not, of a recession?”

Morrison: “Well, I didn’t use that term …”

Lane: “Christopher Pyne is.”

Morrison: “Well, he, I’m happy for him to express it the way he wishes to …”

Lane: “Well, why won’t you say the word ‘recession’?”

Morrison: “Because I don’t get into those terms.”

Meanwhile, Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert told Sky News the government’s promised 1.25 million jobs would be
full-time. True story.

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