SMS turns Scott Morrison’s reset into painful rewind

Illustration: Johannes Leak

Scott Morrison’s National Press Club address was supposed to be his reset moment ahead of the election.

Instead, the Prime Minister is being forced to answer questions about which current senior minister texted disparaging comments about him with Gladys Berejiklian.

The former NSW premier was a willing participant in the whinge-fest about Morrison but because the minister hasn’t been named, attention has turned to who the other party in the conversation was.

While it’s understandable that journalists will ask questions about it, politicians will of course line up to deny it was them, and others will demand the respon­sible minister out themselves; that’s never going to happen.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: NCA/ Gary Ramage

Why? Because the minister is the source, which is also why the veracity of the text exchange isn’t in question. It wasn’t passed on by a third party, for example.

I’m the only other person who knows who the minister is and that’s the way it will always be. Journalists protect their sources.

The PM wouldn’t have ­appreciated learning that someone he’s described as a close friend, ­Berejiklian, texted that he’s “a horrible, horrible person”.

Especially when that person is a ­former NSW premier he wanted to run for a federal seat at the next election. But it’s a story.

When the other half of the conversation is a senior, current minister who described the PM as a “complete psycho” and “fraud”, that raises the understandable concern that someone has chosen to leak something damaging about him and they are still “lurking in the ranks”, as an MP described it to me.

Others will speculate about their motivation in leaking the texts. The exchange speaks for itself: during the bushfires two years ago, the minister and Berejiklian were seething about Morrison on a number of levels.

The National Press Club was the best opportunity available to put the messages to the PM and get a proper response. At a news conference, he would have dismissed that question long before it was over.

Submitting questions to his ­office would have resulted in all manner of backroom discussions followed by a carefully crafted ­response late in the day. Probably without any comment from the PM.

We wouldn’t have been able to see how Morrison really felt upon hearing what was said about him. His reaction told its own story. He looked shocked, concerned, and even hurt. Who wouldn’t be?

But there is only one thing the government can now do: get over it and get on with business.

A witch hunt will get them ­absolutely nowhere.

Peter van Onselen is the political editor at Network Ten.