Daniel Andrews blast of Scott Morrison ‘spells doom’ for national cabinet

Scott Morrison is being urged to scrap national cabinet after an extraordinary exchange with Daniel Andrews.

Scott Morrison and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Mark Stewart

Former long-serving premiers have urged Scott Morrison to call time on national cabinet if the public slanging match between government leaders continues, after Daniel Andrews accused the Prime Minister of chasing the “votes of extremists”.

Coalition strategists are preparing to face an election campaign with Labor premiers helping Anthony Albanese, as the Victorian, Queensland and West Australian governments escalated their criticisms of Mr Morrison.

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett said the nation would be “better without national cabinet” if leaders did not show more co-operation outside meetings, while former NSW premier Bob Carr said the time had come for ­national cabinet to be disbanded.

“I like the concept of national cabinet but only if there was a genuine willingness by all to ­participate,” Mr Kennett said.

“If they are going to continually seek to gain points by slinging off at each other, particularly ­Andrews at the Prime Minister, then the public lose confidence in the whole concept of the national cabinet as they lose confidence in the quality of the leaders,” he said.

“If it doesn’t work then there is no point in it going on, and I would not put back in place COAG. It is a very expensive, bureaucratic ­organisation that has grown into being a government department of itself.”

Mr Andrews accused Mr Morrison on Friday of “double speak” for condemning violent protests in Victoria but also saying he understood people were frustrated by governments “telling people what to do”.

Mr Morrison also criticised mandatory vaccination policies of state governments.

“You have got to call it out when you see this sort of appalling behaviour,” Mr Andrews said. “I’m committed to doing what has to be done and not chasing, through double speak, the votes of extremists or their preferences. If others choose to do that then that is on them.”

When asked what his relationship was like with Mr Morrison, Mr Andrews said it would “be a lot better when he stops double speaking to extremists”.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan accused the Prime Minister of breaking ranks with premiers to “try and win some political points”.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said Mr Morrison had expressed “very dangerous views”.

The Prime Minister rejected the criticism of the Labor states, declaring he was unequivocal about condemning violent protests. “I have no sympathy with that agenda,” he said.

Mr Morrison said he had empathy for the “broader view of Australians who have done the right thing and got vaccinated”.

“(People who) want to come together again and want their lives back and they want governments to stop telling them what to do – and have government step back and them step forward into their own future. That’s the cause I have sympathy with,” he said.  Mr Carr said that, while he ­believed national cabinet should be disbanded, all political leaders should be clear about denouncing anti-vaxxers. “No political leader should give a moments encouragement to any anti-vax sentiment. None,” he said.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham accused the premiers of colluding with Mr Albanese in an effort to diminish Mr Morrison’s standing with the public.

“It wouldn’t surprise me one iota if this was all simply a co-ordinated federal Labor Party tactic,” Senator Birmingham said. “Let’s line the premiers up, we’ll go out and try to create another phony fight, to do a bit of a pile-on against Scott Morrison.”