By Andrew Wicks
According to Scott Morrison, he never criticised the EU. This directly contradicts a statement that he made two hours earlier, one that criticised the EU.
Back in March, Health Minister Greg Hunt rejected a potential delay in the vaccine rollout after Europe blocked one shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine. At the time, he said, “we are very clear that this does not affect the pace of the rollout.”
A month later, we know the opposite to be true. However, the mental gymnastics present goes right to the top.
At 8am, the Morrison government put out the following statement: “Of the 3.8 million AstraZeneca (AZ) Australia has pre-purchased from overseas supplies only 700,000 have been delivered to date. AZ has not been able to secure an export licence from Europe to send the remaining doses, and they know they would never be approved by the European Commission (EC).”
As journalist Samantha Maiden noted, “… the Morrison government has slammed the European Commission over its denial they didn’t block COVID vaccines to Australia as ‘semantics’”.
Wind the clock forward, however, and Scott Morrison has fronted the media and said that, “First of all, I want to stress that at no time did I make any comment about the actions of the European Union, nor did I indicate any of the background reasons for the lack of supply that we have received from those contracted doses. And so, any suggestion that I, in any way, made any criticism of the European Union would be completely incorrect.”
Fortunately, a pioneering reporter posed the following question to Scott Morrison:
Trust in the Government is critical for Australians to actually take up the vaccine. In recent weeks, we’ve seen blame-shifting with the states. We’re now bickering with the EC about supply issues and along with the issues with blood clotting, which still remains unclear to a lot of people. Are you concerned that the Government’s handling of this may contribute to vaccine hesitancy among the population? And what are you going to do about that?
Morrison responded thusly: “No, I’m not. And I think much of the conflation of the issues you’ve raised, I think, is more in appearance than in fact. I mean, all I’ve simply done today is set out very clearly that 3.1 million vaccines didn’t arrive in Australia. That’s just a simple fact. It’s not a dispute. It’s not a conflict. It’s not an argument. It’s not a clash. It’s just a simple fact.
“And I’m simply explaining to the Australian public that supply issues is (sic) what’s constraining and has constrained, particularly over the recent months, the overall rollout of the vaccine. Look, it happens before every single National Cabinet. You all write stories about how everybody is disagreeing with each other and we come to National Cabinet as always and I’ll stand before you on Friday and talk about the things that are agreed.”
*****
In Morrison’s world, he didn’t say what he said. The states and the federal government are getting along harmoniously, and criticism of the rollout doesn’t actually exist. What is the above, if not textbook gaslighting?
Dr Jennifer Sweeton, a Stanford and Harvard-trained trauma specialist, defined it as “a ‘sneaky, difficult-to-identify form of manipulation (and in severe cases, emotional abuse)’ that results in the gaslightee questioning his or her own perception, experiences, and even reality. In severe cases, this psychological warfare can result in the victim becoming dependent on the gaslighter for his or her own sense of reality.”
"you're assuming a supply of vaccines that was not there. You're assuming that there were 3m vaccines that were here that were not here … the supply of those vaccines were not there. And so your assumption is based on a false premise of supply that was not there".#auspol pic.twitter.com/hoPXP23dfU
— Squizz (@SquizzSTK) April 6, 2021
This article was originally published on The Big Smoke.
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Wow. So Australi’s national dealer is behaving true to form.
Isn’t this his entire resin d’etre.
His personal beliefs are based on something, or “someone” that is just smoke and mirrors.
His “employment” in which he promptly rose to the bottom rungs, was based on the same philosophies.
Politics. More of the same. “Come in spinner”
Ascendency to the prime ministership. Rinse and repeat.
Every occasion, and I mean EVERY occasion, since then which has called for leadership and calm he has failed, pointed fingers, blamed, misdirected and lied.
Meet scottyfrommarketing. Australia’s prime minister.
Poor fella my country.
A nation goes down and back every day, because a fraud, a failure, a drenched in superstition liar is in charge (hah) making up any shit for consumption, presuming we are all dung beetles. Superstitious idiots like that dolt Morrison live in a world that never existed, but claim they are saved, blessed, anointed, superior, trusted, triumphal and enlightened and…more and more devious, lying shit follows. It STINKS. Self fixation, self promotion, self aggrandisement, all self and no thought for duty to US. Backstabbing lying anus…
He is so deeply immersed in his own reality that he has forgotten what lies he has uttered and to whom;
but not to worry, Uncle Rupert will shine a light on the truth and all will be forgiven and forgotten
The Liar strikes back in predictable fashion,mangling meaning and language in a vain attempt to obscure his previous lies.His advisors should be in a cold sweat,after all how much more of this garbage can be foisted onto the public?What about the rest of his party?Are they all complicit in this insulting charade?Is there not one shred of decency or integrity within the LNP? The answer is obvious.They are beneath contempt.
Uhm ….. I would think that Scummo may be suffering from early dementia as evidenced by his failing personal memory …..
The internal conflict is frightening in a ‘leader’.
How many times have we doubted our sense of truth and reality because a moron like Scott Morrison has used their power gaslighting with his foul smelling methane and gunpowder, obscuring the view and the stench? Gosh, I’ve been ambushed so many times by general managers and directors in NSW executive meetings, belittled and shamed for telling the truth or asking the questions. I wonder where they learned it from? And Morrison does it all the time every day.
And then the lie, ‘I never said that’, and for some god forsaken reason, everyone round the table believes them because they said so, well almost everyone, even a sycophant won’t own up to that.
Spot on Andrew.
MY GOD, Morrison (like the depraved, mumbling misfit, Abbott) is such a relentless, deceptive, diabolical and PATHOLOGICAL LIAR, he now finds it almost IMPOSSIBLE to tell the truth on ANY OCCASION, even if the truth is completely inoffensive! It’s uncanny that Morrison, the Mother and Father of ALL Liars, feels more comfortable with bullshit than facts – says so much about him living an insular world of self-manufactured delusions!
If it was a bright sunny day and you asked MorriSCAM what the weather was like, he would put up an umbrella and tell you it was raining – just for the hell of it! If it was 3.00 pm and you asked this duplicitous, self-serving, sanctimonious hypocrite what time it was – the epic failed Marketeer, MorriSCAM, would have you believe it was 9.00 pm despite ALL evidence to the contrary! Morrison couldn’t lie straight in bed, couldn’t tell the truth if he has a gun to his head. The fact is that the bone-idle miscreant, Sloth MorriSCUM is SO COMFORTABLE with lies, deception, self-serving rorting and ruthless backstabbing betrayal, he wears such treachery like a second skin! In fact there is not ONE loathsome, plotting, scheming psychopath in Morrison’s unspeakably evil cabinet who has a single redeeming feature – NOT ONE!
“To be a successful liar one must have a very good memory.”
Something that I was told 60+ years ago.
Sooty knew that, but has subsequently forgotten it.
Or he has misremembered it, perhaps.
Maybe, he just can’t recall it.
Whatever, he’s a very unconvincing liar, but perhaps he’s forgotten that, too.
Maybe also reflexive aka how UK, Australia and formerly with the US, conservative political leaders and/or NewsCorp/Kochs have been blaming or dog whistling the ‘EU’ or Europe for everything, because (like other existential threats of refugees/immigrants) there is generally no kick back (EU also cops it from other great democracies in Russia, Turkey, Poland and Hungary…..).
Also found to be strange in Oz, probably via media conditioning and mostly US/UK content, how many Australians know nothing about Europe/EU except -ve perceptions, signified by doing an eye roll, but if asked a question they cannot respond…. so maybe Morrison was on the money assuming he could get away with a ‘too easy’ glib one liner to Australians; works too often nowadays for anyone in Oz.
The original “Hhouse of Cards” series (the British one) PM character Francis Urquhart adopted the ABCD philosophy when dealing with contentious issues, this meant Attack-Bluster-Conceal-Deny.. Seems Smuggo has been boning up on Thatcher era TV.
oh you mean that europe no no I was talking about the other europe.
John,
I tried watching the US version of House of Cards a few months ago and made it, barely, through two episodes. Atrocious crap compared to the Francis Urquhart trilogy made back in the 90’s.
Scummo is a pale and insignificant shade of Urquhart. A talentless oaf (full of delusions of grandeur) who back stabbed his way into a position of power for which he is completely and utterly incapable of handling at any level of competency. He has been on the back foot, which is nailed to the floor, from day one and will continue to go around in clueless circles until removed.
It disappoints me just how comfortable and ignorant my own family is. They could do with a good dose of reality in the form of retrenchment, serious illness, or something that impacts on their complacency. Not that I wish this on them. But it is so frustrating knowing that they have no contact with the real world. Until a fire, flood or something else upsets their day, they will continue to see me as a prophet of doom. I could tear my hair out at times.