Excuses, arrogance and deception: Morrison was always the problem

Excuses, arrogance and deception: Scott Morrison was always the problem.

If news of Scott Morrison’s collector tendencies had been ventilated prior to the last election his colleagues might have removed him as prime minister. That is how angry many are now when you talk to them.

A small band of Morrison defenders – led by the member for Cook – has sought to downplay the significance of what happened when the former PM began accumulating ministerial portfolios without the knowledge or consent of his colleagues. But for most conservatives, what he did was an abject violation of the founding principles of their ideology.

Conservatives are supposed to protect institutions, party systems; indeed, the due process that provides transparency. Morrison’s actions would have been concerning enough if we knew about them. If the public or his colleagues did know, they would have stopped his actions, which is the whole point. The fact that he went about collecting portfolios in secret has shredded what reputation he had left after the damage done presiding over the May 21 electoral catastrophe.

The inquiries will happen, the rules will be changed. The biggest legacy of the Morrison administration might now be the consequence of his maladministration. A change, hopefully, in the culture of secrecy he encouraged.

Morrison has tried to defend what he did, and sought to make light of the situation by engaging with social media memes mocking himself. Don’t mistake that engagement with having a sense of humour. It was a marketing ploy designed to downplay the significance of what happened.

The decision to usurp the health minister in early 2020 was perhaps understandable. The emergency powers Greg Hunt had should never have been legislated in the first place, and required a stronger check and balance. Hunt was told about the co-opting, and Morrison only acted after receiving legal advice from his attorney-general, Christian Porter. Other than the failure to transparently report the change, those actions are justifiable. Those involved variously claim there was no intent of secrecy, they just forgot to tell anyone. Implausible but perhaps the tumult of the time explains such an oversight. One member of this gang of three privately claims he recalled a brief mention of the move in one of the long media conferences Morrison did towards the beginning of the pandemic. I have trawled over transcripts unsuccessfully trying to find it. I can only assume that is a memory failure.

It is what happened next that saw Morrison spiral into the territory of a collector, seemingly addicted to usurping ministerial roles. I know what it’s like to get addicted to collecting. As a child I collected toy soldiers. Shortly after the health takeover Morrison did the same in finance, without the knowledge of minister Mathias Cormann, who also happened to be a member of the leadership team. Porter was also unaware.

The former PM seemed to get caught up with other endeavours for the next year or so (mis)managing the pandemic before his collecting tendencies again surfaced. In the countdown to the 2021 budget he usurped the ministerial roles of energy, resources, industry, science, home affairs and even Treasury, occupied by deputy Liberal leader Josh Frydenberg. All without the knowledge of the ministers whose roles were co-opted or the attorney-general.

I simply cannot fathom what could have been going through Morrison’s mind to do this. I choose to believe he wasn’t so delusional as to think he could usurp democracy itself.

Morrison’s first excuse for his actions was that in the context of Covid they were necessary, which is rubbish beyond the arguable decision over health. If a minister needed replacing having suffered from Covid, for example, doing so can happen with lightning speed and ease without their ministerial sign-off, as Morrison secretly demonstrated. The former PM initially claimed not informing ministers was a mere oversight. If true that is quite the oversight. He subsequently argued the changes were kept secret because he didn’t want to alarm anyone – an odd excuse in the context of his deeply alarming actions – and in contradiction with his earlier reasoning.

Morrison also argued it was necessary to usurp the powers of his ministers because he feared “some threat to the national interest as a result of unilateral action by an individual”. Putting to one side a PM secretly holding a cavalcade of other ministries as the ultimate threat to the national interest, this argument shows an extraordinary lack of faith in his frontbench. It also speaks to the arrogance of the man, always believing the solution to any problem is more of Scott Morrison. Even though the focus group and polling research both major parties undertook throughout the election campaign highlighted in no uncertain terms Morrison’s personal brand was toxic. He was the problem, no one else.

But Morrison might be unlikely to leave parliament anytime soon. He is the first former PM not to receive the generous parliamentary pension (other than Malcolm Turnbull, but he is loaded). And recent revelations now make Morrison a potential liability for corporates interested in good governance. Also, if he quit parliament the Liberals could well lose his seat. Were that to happen, Malcolm Fraser’s old seat of Wannon in regional Victoria would be the only one the Liberals retain among the various seats of former Liberal PMs. Those seats once held by Menzies, Holt, Gorton, McMahon, Howard, Abbott and Turnbull are now held by Labor or the crossbench. This reality neatly ties a bow around why conservatism is languishing, in no small part because the actions of a supposedly conservative PM such as Morrison trashed institutions and transparency. Democracy dies in the dark. Unfortunately the darkness suited Morrison’s governing style just fine.

On another issue, I hear Stephen Smith is firming as the likely next ambassador to Washington. He’ll be an excellent replacement for Arthur Sinodinos when his term expires. Before then Smith will need to complete his review on defence. Smith travelled with Anthony Albanese during the election campaign, becoming a trusted adviser. While political appointments to diplomatic positions are always a contested space, there are certain senior roles well suited to a former politician connected in Canberra. US officials want to know if they talk to Australia’s ambassador, he or she has a direct line to the Prime Minister.

The likelihood of Smith’s candidature grew when Kristina Keneally made it clear she wasn’t interested in any diplomatic appointments at this point in time. She and husband Ben are in no rush to leave Australia. Washington wasn’t the only role Labor could have used Keneally for, of course. Mitch Fifield’s ambassadorship to the UN and Nick Greiner’s role as high commissioner to New York will soon be up for grabs. And George Brandis’s high commissionership to London is currently being filled in an acting capacity by a bureaucrat. But with Keneally not interested, Labor will need to find the right political fits for these appointments. I wonder if Kevin Rudd is sniffing around?

Peter van Onselen is a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and Griffith University.