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The cascade of text messages leaked against Scott Morrison this week, in which he was reportedly called a “horrible person” by Gladys Berejiklian, a “psycho” by one of his ministers, and then a “hypocrite and a liar” by Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, reveal a governing party in disarray, just when the country is in desperate need of leadership.
Australia is still riding its largest wave of COVID-19 infections. Hundreds of people are dying each week, many of them in aged care. The isolation of essential workers has caused problems in the provision of goods and services and has increased the pressure on health systems.
Scott Morrison addresses the National Press Club on Tuesday.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
But instead of putting the national interest first and addressing these challenges, the federal Liberal Party has turned on itself, triggering the leaked messages, in what has been labelled a “civil war” over NSW preselection. This is not acceptable. The Liberals need to sort out their differences quickly and return their focus to governing the country, for their sake and the sake of the nation.
The Prime Minister will call an election within the next three months. With opinion polls recording a large drop in support for the government after a disastrous summer littered with errors, from a lack of rapid antigen tests to Novak Djokovic, Liberal MPs are clearly getting nervous about their electoral chances with Morrison at the helm.
No Australian prime minister has served a full term in office since John Howard’s run ended in 2007. Morrison will still likely take the Liberals into the election, but his grip on the leadership seems increasingly tenuous. The timing of the first text message leak on Tuesday – while Morrison was taking questions from journalists after a key speech at the National Press Club – was clearly intended to hurt him badly and was a disturbing indication of the mood within his party room. Brittany Higgins leaked the second message after Barnaby Joyce, who sent the message to her through a third party, demanded the minister responsible for the first leak reveal himself. Joyce has since apologised for his message and said it was wrong.
Morrison himself compounded the damage on Tuesday when he could not say how much it cost to buy a loaf of bread. It’s a cliché question but – given other leaders have been infamously caught out by it and John Howard reportedly always carried the answer with him – it’s hard to believe Morrison’s advisers had not anticipated the question and prepared him accordingly. His inability to answer was a poor reflection on the people upon whom the Prime Minister is relying to do his job.
Aged care residents are spending extended periods isolated from other people.Credit:iStock
The public has also been made aware of the disturbing situation playing out in aged care homes on the government’s watch. Vulnerable residents are spending weeks isolated in their rooms at risk to their mental health, receiving lower quality care because of a lack of staff, and struggling to access booster shots.
Morrison has very little time to repair the damage of the past week. In hindsight, he probably should have gone to the polls in November, when the vaccine rollout had finally achieved key targets and NSW and Victoria were putting the worst of the Delta outbreak behind them.
Instead, the arrival of the Omicron variant in December brought into sharp relief the government’s enduring flaws: a lack of foresight, a tendency to stubbornly stick to the chosen path even as circumstances change and a hesitancy to accept responsibility for mistakes.
This is no ordinary election year. The nation is experiencing the worst health and economic crisis in living memory. If Australia is to minimise the damage and recover from it, campaigning and politicking must cede to diligent governance, right up to election day. This stands for the opposition as much as for the party in power.
Australians will vote for those they most trust to manage their health and wealth. For a few more months, the Liberal Party has the benefit of incumbency to show it can do the job. Morrison must learn from his government’s mistakes, get his team in order and put the nation’s interests first if he is to make the most of this advantage and forge a path forward for the country.
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