In a bizarre media conference this afternoon, Scott Morrison insisted he was right to take on multiple ministries and not tell his colleagues about doing so, and told Australians they should be proud of how the pandemic was handled.
In a long statement to the media, Morrison devoted most of it to claiming that his handling of the pandemic was world-best and enormously successful in saving lives and jobs — and that Australians regularly tell him how wonderfully he handled it. His decision to take multiple ministries in secret was, he said, justified by the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic, in which he “took decisions he’d never dream of”.
“I’d rather have this discussion about what I did do than what I didn’t do,” Morrison said.
On the crucial issue of why he didn’t tell his colleagues, Morrison gave a number of non-explanations: he didn’t need to tell them because he never exercised ministerial powers outside the resources portfolio; he would have told them if he used such powers; and that it would have been misunderstood and misinterpreted. Indeed, Morrison suggested that the response to the revelations of his multiple portfolios this week justified his decision to keep them secret.
A shrill Morrison also justified his actions by complaining that the media, the opposition and the public were holding him accountable for everything that happened during the pandemic, even when he had no authority or power in relation to issues. And he insisted that the fact he never used his powers except in relation to the resources portfolio showed that his decision was the right one and a demonstration of his good faith.
At one stage, Morrison, under heavy fire from journalists, claimed that those who hadn’t been prime minister couldn’t understand the circumstances in which he deceived his colleagues and signed himself into their portfolios. He also rejected suggestions he should resign, saying he didn’t make the decision as member for Cook but as prime minister, and that he would remain MP for Cook until he made a decision about whether to contest the next election.
Morrison also refused to explain why, when asked yesterday on radio if he’d self-appointed any portfolios other than Health, Finance and Resources, he couldn’t remember being sworn in to the Treasury or Home Affairs portfolios. He also said today no one had made any decisions about grants or financial allocations “to his knowledge” while he was co-minister.
It’s hard to recall a more delusional and troubling display from a senior political figure than Morrison’s effort today. The extraordinary level of self-justification, the insistence that his decisions were perfectly valid, the refusal to accept that his secrecy was a problem, and that no one had a right to question his conduct because of the special circumstances of the pandemic — each suggests a mindset of deep denial about how savagely he trashed basic norms around governance in Australia.
The fact that Morrison actually told News Corp journalists at the time about his secret multiple ministries — as he admits now — yet didn’t tell the affected ministers themselves represents a staggering betrayal that should be sufficient in itself to end his time in politics.
His insistence that he will remain in Parliament also suggests he is in equal denial about the profound damage he has inflicted not merely on the smoking ruins of his own political legacy but on his own party. The fact that Peter Dutton has so far declined to cut Morrison loose will tie the opposition to their former leader for some time to come.
The Albanese government must be unable to believe its luck that this strange man with such a toxic legacy will continue to sit in Parliament with colleagues who plainly don’t want him there.
