Scott Morrison has no one to blame but himself

The Coalition’s election loss sits firmly at the feet of the former PM. Not because he owned the country’s pandemic but because he never owned up to his mistakes.

Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaking to the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul on Thursday, July 14, 2022. Picture: Supplied

A certain amount of self-delusion is necessary to sustain a political career; the fine art of spin requires participants to believe their own bullshit from time to time. That (un)healthy self-delusion can become an emotional crutch in defeat as politicians (especially failed leaders) use it to justify their actions.

Scott Morrison suggesting to a leadership forum in Seoul that his election defeat was the price paid for tough decision-making during the pandemic is right up there in the delusion stakes.

The simple fact is that without the pandemic not only would he have lost the election by an even greater margin, he probably wouldn’t have made it to polling day in the first place after being rolled by his colleagues.

When Covid-19 struck, Morrison was in the middle of a crisis ­because of his secret Hawaii vacation as Australia burned. The sports rorts saga also was eating away at his government’s credibility. The pandemic was his saviour, yet he still managed to stuff up sufficiently to lose an election.

As the Liberal Party surveys the wreckage he has left behind, those left to pick up the pieces must be wondering whether it was worth silently ascribing to Team Morrison’s approach to governance. Just 58 seats for the Coalition in the 151-seat House of Representatives; a decreased number (and percentage) of women in Liberal ranks; the decimation of the moderate faction at the hands of the teals; once blue-ribbon seats known for their fundraising prowess now lost; the economic credibility of the Howard years up in smoke. Throw in credibility-sapping opposition to an integrity commission, and this is Morrison’s legacy.

He’s the first prime minister to have served a full term since John Howard, having won an unexpected victory in 2019, but at what cost to the future of the Liberal Party? Labor won one election more than it anticipated when Paul Keating defeated John Hewson. It then didn’t return to power for 11 years.

In his speech, Morrison simultaneously claimed credit for Australia’s successes managing Covid-19 and used the tumult of the pandemic to justify his own electoral failure. “Leadership often requires you to take the hit for the mission you are engaged in,” the self-described bulldozer told his audience.

Scott Morrison concedes defeat following the results of the federal election during the Liberal Party election night event at the Fullerton Hotel on May 21, 2022 in Sydney. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

The delusions of grandeur are strong in this one. Anyone who was paying attention during the pandemic saw first hand that it was the premiers (of various political stripes) who used state powers within the Federation to stare down Morrison’s attempts to react more slowly early on. A sluggish initial response might have seen Covid invade Australia and permeate throughout the community had lockdowns not been put in place as early as they were.

And don’t forget Australia’s most successful state at keeping Covid out, Western Australia, faced a High Court challenge to its closed borders from Clive Palmer, initially supported by the federal government. No wonder WA voters punished the Morrison government so severely.

So when you hear Morrison crowing abroad about Australia’s low death rates, it is worth remembering that’s a key performance indicator the premiers can be most proud of. To the extent Australia’s Covid death rate isn’t even lower is a consequence of deaths during the botched vaccine rollout. Had Morrison acquired more vaccines earlier, rather than claiming “it’s not a race”, that could have been avoided.

To be fair to Morrison, he’s selling himself on the international speakers circuit to make a buck. Aside from Malcolm Turnbull, Morrison is the first former prime minister to no longer benefit from the generous parliamentary pension scheme that would have seen him receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in the aftermath of his prime ministership. That might not be an issue for the likes of Turnbull, but it helps us understand why Morrison is hanging around on a backbencher’s salary and offering himself up on the speakers circuit. As an aside, whatever you think of Morrison or any other ex-prime minister, it’s absurd we don’t provide former national leaders with annuated pensions for life.

Labor’s election strategy was to hammer Morrison as someone who never took responsibility. (Remember lines like “I don’t hold a hose, mate” and “that’s not my job”?) When he messed up (think hotel quarantine, vaccine strollout and not acquiring enough rapid antigen tests) he covered up, blaming others.

Forgiveness for failures could have been the community response to Morrison, given the challenges of the pandemic, had he not always blame shifted. To be sure, some of his critics went too far in their condemnations. Their frothing at the mouth risked handing him another term simply because the mainstream doesn’t like over-the-top antics. Howard benefited from this unpleasant quotient of the community for years. But Morrison proved to be no Howard, and the public’s personal dislike of his leadership style went far beyond what Howard endured. Howard’s satisfaction rating even in defeat at the 2007 election was more than 50 per cent. That’s because Howard was no buck passer. Morrison’s personal rating was in the toilet.

The inability of the Coalition to get re-elected sits firmly at the feet of Morrison. Not because he owned the crisis but because he never owned up to his mistakes.

In his speech on Thursday, Morrison said as leader when things went wrong “you just have to cop it”. He did exactly the opposite as a leader, and it was his undoing. Even the “it’s not a race” line used about the vaccine rollout was blamed on others: Morrison claimed he was just parroting the advice of the medical experts.

The well-known blame shifter in government is now using taking the blame as one of the reasons for his downfall. You couldn’t make this up; the delusion is breathtaking. Or is it?

Perhaps he knows exactly what he is doing. Scotty from Marketing is now marketing himself on the world stage as a master of pandemic management in a bid to carve out a legacy following a catastrophic defeat that was ­entirely his doing.

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