Damaged PM’s best asset: time

Run over by the Nats’ clown car, ringmaster Scott Morrison still has time to engineer another miracle.

Scott Morrison and his deputy, Nationals leader Michael McCormack. Picture: AAP

Last year Scott Morrison was the incredible ringmaster who saved the Coalition circus, using the whip to control stunt acts, restoring the crowds and getting the show back on the road. But during the summer season he was burned by the fire juggler, run over by the Nats’ clown car and suffered several palpable hits from Angry Anthony, the Albanian knife thrower.

What’s more, ticket sales were down as customers looked to other attractions and sections of the crowd started booing and throwing popcorn.

The dark-haired gypsy fortune-tellers and the crystal ball-gazers declared doom and gloom for the grand Coalition circus and the end of Miraculous Morrison at his own hands.

Even the former ringmaster, sacked for losing control of the trained monkeys, chimed into the chorus of damnation.

But for all of this carnival of misfortune there is one thing Morrison has going for him now that he didn’t have the last time he saved the circus when no one thought he could: time. The Prime Minister, despite a reluctance to admit mistakes, despite a sensitivity to criticism and suffering, at times, from a misplaced loyalty, has demonstrated a resilience, an ability to remain calm — although he almost succumbed to a whiff of panic over climate change and the bushfires last month — and a discipline to stick to a winning message.

There’s no doubt he has suffered lasting damage from the image of him on holiday in Hawaii when the bushfires were on.

Such things happen. Politicians make mistakes and in an unforgiving age such as ours — with the piling on of hatred — it would seem Morrison will never return to where he was in the public’s eye and is forever to be portrayed in a loud hibiscus shirt.

The loss has been Morrison’s personally; he has forfeited the position of preferred prime minister for the first time to Anthony Albanese but the Coalition’s primary vote, while down, is still ahead of Labor’s primary support in Newspoll, as it was at last year’s election.

Nationals leadership challenger Barnaby Joyce. Picture: Getty

So Morrison has suffered real and lasting damage, he has many unresolved challenges and his Coalition deputy, Michael McCormack, has made things worse — but the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader know there is plenty of time for the cycle to shift.

As it was in the dark days of losses and minority government in late 2018 it’s again all down to Morrison to change his approach, set a long-term strategy, balance the weakness of his Coalition partner and use incumbency to exercise authority and re-establish public faith in how he handles new crises such as the coronavirus. The resumption of parliament this week was not good for the Prime Minister. How could it be?

On Sunday, Bridget McKenzie resigned as agriculture minister and Nationals deputy leader because of a conflict of interest in the pre-election $100m sports grants program. On Monday resources minister Matt Canavan resigned from cabinet as Nationals MPs moved against the Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader McCormack.

On Tuesday, McCormack fended off a challenge from former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, although narrowly, and the ambitious David Littleproud was elected deputy leader of the Nationals and entrenched his leadership credentials. On Wednesday, the Opposition Leader pressed home Labor’s attack on McKenzie’s dumping over the “sports rorts” and the Auditor-General’s damning report.

scandal-plagued Nationals MP Bridget McKenzie. Picture: AAP

former resources minister Matt Canavan, who resigned his portfolio in support of Joyce. Picture: AAP

On Thursday, McCormack’s ministerial shuffle failed to offer any conciliation to rebel Nationals, Joyce told Morrison there was potential for a Nationals rebel group to block Coalition legislation and Morrison was subjected to an intense and bitter grilling over his political mistakes in handling the bushfires.

On Friday, Joyce’s rebellion call dominated the political debate and the Coalition’s Senate leader, Mathias Cormann, had to deny threats to the government’s agenda as the Opposition Leader and shadow cabinet held a high-profile visit and meeting on the bushfire-ravaged south coast of NSW.

While this daily diary of doom descended, the Coalition’s budget surplus came under further threat from the “economic shock”, as Josh Frydenberg put it, of the spread of the coronavirus reducing Chinese spending in the Australian economy.

So, with Morrison having suffered damage, being under pressure and facing various challenges,his political responses were designed to be more substantial than the concerted, and at times hysterical, campaign against him and his failings during the summer parliamentary break.

On the bushfires, trying to make up ground, the federal government, which had already spent hundreds of millions on firefighting, recovery and assistance, announced a royal commission with a quick turnaround for practical recommendations.

Morrison said sorry for going to Hawaii on holiday in December and admitted he’d made mistakes as he addressed Labor’s barbs over on-camera embarrassments at fire scenes on the NSW south coast.

On Friday afternoon in Townsville he was reinforcing his previous good reception for the handling of the north Queensland floods and talking about the future recovery from bushfires.

He said he was in Townsville because it was a year since he had been there as the floods hit.

“I get it,” he said. “When a natural disaster hits and the cameras move on, we are still here.

“You have to stick here for the long haul,” he said as he concentrated on the future recovery from disasters, whether it was floods, drought or bushfires.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: Getty Images

Morrison wants the damaging political debate on his personal handling of the bushfires to move on to the “long haul” of recovery and the future when the cameras are gone.

He also went out of his way not to antagonise the Nationals rebels threatening to cross the floor because McCormack had not reached out to losing MPs after the leadership ballot — as Morrison had himself after the Liberal leadership ballot last year — and to treat Joyce with respect.

On a separate front at the start of the week, Morrison announced a new veterans’ commissioner who would have the powers of a royal commission to investigate the causes of veterans’ suicide and help affected families. This had bipartisan support.

At the same time, the government pulled out all the stops on the handling of the Chinese coronavirus, arranging emergency airlifts out of the Wuhan epicentre of the deadly outbreak, banning visitors from China — except Australian nationals — setting up quarantine centres in remote areas and isolating and treating cases within Australia.

Every senior minister from Greg Hunt in Health and Peter Dutton on Border Security through to the Treasurer were pulled into the public and parliamentary response to the virus, underlining the Coalition’s commitment to combating the new threat.

Frydenberg made it clear the threat to the Coalition’s pledge to deliver the first budget surplus in a decade was real and unquantifiable. Even the extensive budget buffer created by wisely conservative iron ore prices in the 2019-20 budget — still in the order of less than half the current price despite recent falls — is under threat from a viral hit to China’s economy.

Morrison and Frydenberg know the Coalition won the election last year with a campaign based on economic management and tax policy, and this is where they want the debate to focus.

All of this, and torrential rainfall on the eastern seaboard, helps the government shift the public and political focus away from bushfires and climate change, as well as a retrospective of Morrison’s summer of discontent, towards other pressing issues and the future.

Morrison has saved the circus before when it was in an even worse state, although at a time when his personal standing was better. He can do so again because he has time, but it will be with a diminished standing and a Labor leader more adept at hurting his reputation and character.