Morrison’s bid to find right balance and end political crisis

Morrison claims to have applied a “gender equality lens” to the conundrum facing his government. Picture: Martin Ollman

Scott Morrison has taken the first step in addressing the issues that have devoured his leadership for the past six weeks, with a political response designed to achieve three things.

The immediate structural issue of stripping Christian Porter and Linda Reynolds of their current roles has been resolved without fuelling further controversy.

By keeping them in cabinet, Morrison has also delivered a deliberate signal that he will still back his colleagues in the face of intense hostility.

The Prime Minister also needed to send a convincing message to women that he is listening through the application of durable and meaningful action.

Faced with a crisis reshuffle brought on by the most extraordinary of events, Morrison claims to have applied a “gender equality lens” to the conundrum.

But the political dimensions to the decisions he has taken were myriad.

Morrison’s view was that sacking Porter from cabinet entirely would have been an unacceptable concession to the lynch mob and a perversion of the rule of law based on his presumption of innocence. Most likely it would have also involved a by-election.

In the case of Reynolds, the optics of dumping a woman senator from cabinet, irrespective of whether it was justifiable considering her “intemperate remarks” about alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins, was unthinkable in the current environment.

Morrison settled on a validation for his decisions both based on legal and medical technicalities that may calm the conservative base but may not fly with others.

In addressing the broader issue of women, Morrison has restored the ratio of female cabinet ministers to 30 per cent, elevated another woman into the leadership group, and ensured there are three women cabinet ministers with permanent seats on the eight member national security committee of cabinet.

There will be those in the Coalition party room that may want to suggest that some of the promotions were other than performance-based.

Several have already expressed surprise that Industry Minister Karen Andrews has been slotted into the mega-security portfolio of Home Affairs — putting her into national security committee of cabinet — with Peter Dutton going to Defence.

Andrews has never held a security position either by portfolio or committee.

However, she is regarded as a quiet achiever with runs on the board during the COVID-19 pandemic with her stewardship of the manufacturing policy.

A few eyebrows have also been raised about the focus on Western Australia, which will once again be proportionally over-represented.

While Michaelia Cash’s elevation to Attorney-General is unquestionably supported within the party, the return of Melissa Price to cabinet — filling the vacancy created by fellow West Australian Mathias Cormann’s retirement last year — comes with questions still hovering about her performance in her previous role as environment minister.

But with the troubles the Liberal Party faces in that state — and considering both Porter and Reynolds hail from the west — there is unlikely to be any quarrel.

The choices Morrison has made have been framed around the narrative that he has purposefully injected more female firepower into senior roles, no matter where they come from.

The further step to restructure the nature and purpose of the executive to elevate women’s safety and economic security, with expanded portfolio responsibilities and a budget taskforce to drive policy outcomes, is an attempt to translate rhetoric into outcomes.

Morrison prefaced his announcement on Monday by saying that, while his changes are designed to “shake up what needs to be shaken up” the government can’t lose sight of its other priorities of economic recovery, the vaccine rollout, fixing the aged care system and guarding against the nation’s strategic interests.

The jury will remain out for some time yet as to whether this was a political masterstroke or a successful containment.