Strewth: Scott Morrison totally burgers Michael McCormack

Michael McCormack’s still young nickname, MickMack, was evidently deemed too beautiful by Scott Morrison.

‘Hey Big Mack ... fancy a Big Mac after Question Time?’ Picture: Gary Ramage

Totally burgered

Michael McCormack’s still young nickname, MickMack, was evidently deemed too beautiful to live yesterday, Scott Morrison giving the Deputy PM a fresh moniker in the process of invoking Robert Menzies and John “Black Jack” McEwen: “In the same way that Ming and Black Jack work so well together, over all of those years, I can tell you that ScoMo and Big Mac over here are doing exactly the same thing.” Move over Canberra bubble, we have a Canberra burger. As for the historical comparison, while solid it has just a couple of tiny hiccups. Ming won seven elections on the trot as Liberal leader, as well as the 1940 poll when he was leader of the United Australia Party (pre-Palmer edition). Morrison has so far won … And while McEwen was Country Party leader — or Country member-in-chief, if you prefer — from 1958-71, he became deputy PM only when the position was created in January 1968, two years almost to the day after Menzies retired. But otherwise, watertight. Elsewhere, Agriculture Minister David Littleproud was quizzed about whether he supported Big Mac as leader. Quoth Littleproud, “To the hilt”, whereupon he and deputy Nats leader Bridget McKenzie chuckled heartily, a moment of jolliness brushed aside as “a personal joke”. While it’s surely Mere Coincidence, leap back to November 7, 2017 (the centenary of the Russian Revolution, for what it’s worth), and behold the words of then PM Malcolm Turnbull as he opened Barnaby Joyce’s campaign office in Tamworth: “Barnaby and I together have been the closest, best team you’ve seen between a Liberal and a National leader for many, many years … As PM, as Barnaby’s friend and colleague, I support him to the hilt.”

Fact-checking with Tim

Sticking with the Nats, eternal gentleman Tim Fischer has been punctuating rounds of chemotherapy reading Barnaby Joyce’s book Weatherboard and Iron. All well and good until page 105, where he stumbled across the claim that Teddy Roosevelt started the Tennessee Valley Authority and the New Deal, when in fact it was the other Roosevelt, FDR, in 1933. One to patch up in the, ah, reprint.

A seamless pass

At a joint presser with Ed Husic and Andrew Leigh, Jo Briskey — Labor’s candidate for the seat of Bonner — showed a solid grip on the Kenny Rogers principle that you’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away.

Journo: “I’ve got some questions for Jo, if you don’t mind. Should Labor use Kyoto credits to help reach emission targets?”

Briskey: “It’s a very good question and I think Andrew is probably best placed to answer. I’ll pass that to you, Andrew.”

Gag disorder

Our mention of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello yesterday stirred for Strewth reader Gary Wickham memories of the duo’s famous catchphrase, and of a missed opportunity: “The day was October 24, 2003. The place was Parliament House, Canberra. The event was an address by visiting Chinese leader Hu Jintao. The missed opportunity? In a parliament that contained an Abbott and a Costello, no one stood and asked ‘Hu’s on first?’ ”

On the cuff

Josh Frydenberg.

No one can blame Treasurer Josh Frydenberg for occasionally dreaming of other places. Behold him at the Sir Robert Menzies lecture in Melbourne yesterday, resplendent in his “US House of Representatives” cufflinks. (Alas, we cannot zoom in meaningfully.)

Gotta unzip

Yesterday’s item about the seat of Sturt stated, “The person who ultimately unseated (Ian) Wilson (was) a member of Wilson’s own staff — a young, ambitious bloke called Christopher Pyne.” We gather this sentence would have worked better without “a member of Wilson’s own staff”. As for the campaign itself, Pyne shared with Strewth one happily abiding memory: “I remember one of the eastern suburbs female delegates to the preselection unzipping her pullover after my win to reveal a white T-shirt with the words ‘I’m Pyneing for Change’ embroidered on the front. It’s as close as I got to an It’s Time moment!”

[e-mail]