For someone who spends a large part of their time finding ways to make politicians look ridiculous, I must confess to mixed emotions when Tony Abbott was deposed as Prime Minister. Sure, it was good for the country but as any Liberal frontbencher will tell you, “Just because it’s good for the country doesn’t mean it’s good for me!” Little did I realise that, not only would Turnbull give me no reason to pause, but his replacement would leave me feeling like I didn’t have enough time to consider all the ways that I could hold his government up to ridicule.
When Phil “Sergeant Schultz” Gaetjens was put in charge of the inquiry, many of us thought that this would be a repeat of the sports rorts one where he only asked a couple of people if they’d done anything corrupt and was satisfied when they said that they hadn’t. We were wrong. He just decided the best thing was not to ask any questions at all because the AFP told him it would be “unwise”. I’m not sure whether it was because it might jeopardise the investigation that they are allegedly doing or whether it was because he might actually find that contrary to all evidence, Scott Morrison actually knows something. (I mean about this particular event/incident/security breach but the sentence works as a stand alone comment too!)
Anyway, the Opposition seemed to think that they could infer from Morrison’s answer in Question Time that when they questioned Phil the Uncurious next week at Estimates, that he would actually answer the questions. Au contraire, the PM merely said that they could ask him. He never said that there’d be answers. Tell you that last week? Ha ha, why would I do that? No, that’s not misleading. I reject the implication.
But little did I know that I wouldn’t be writing about the Gaetjens non-inquiry because by the end of the day, I’d be asking questions about the so-called Prayer Group. I mean, I’ve heard various journalists refer to the group and it always suggested to me that it was a group of religious MPs who spent some part of each day on their knees seeking a path to glory.
Given what we know now about the prayer room, one hopes that they didn’t meet in the prayer room… Or if they did, one hopes that they weren’t on their knees… Um, that sounds sort of wrong. What I meant was that I hope they did it standing up… Um, what I’m trying to say is that I’m sure that the Prayer Group is a religious group who would have used it for the purpose it was intended.
Perhaps, I should move on to the desk. Or rather, the staffer who was sacked for having an inappropriate relationship with someone else’s. Jen didn’t even have to ask what if it were your daughters’ desk. Swift decisive action. No need to ask how much alcohol was in the desk or why the desk didn’t report it at the time. See, we’re not a mob of misogynists like those silly women are saying… Apparently, Michelle Landry was sorry for the young man because he “loved the place”… How she knows it was genuine love and not just lust, I don’t know.
The Prime Minister fronted the media this morning to assure them he was deeply concerned by all this because his daughters are everything… and Jen she’s also everything…plus he has a mum – a widowed mum – who are everything and they inspire him, so I that’s why his job is nothing. But they’ve motivated him all life and he’s got several announcements up his sleeve about changing culture which is both appalling and not really worse than other places. He managed to justify his answer about getting an update about the end of the Gaetjens investigation by telling everyone that he didn’t mislead Parliament when he said he hadn’t had an update about anything because there’s nothing to update and he doesn’t know when he’ll get the final report because he won’t, so when he said that he didn’t know, well, what could be clearer than that. Apart from possibly saying last week that the whole thing had been put on hold.
Yes, while Parliament is a toxic culture where entitled males run rampant, is it any different from where you work? After all, as Scottyfromrejectedpremises said, nobody can be expected to know everything that’s going on, or if you’re PM, anything. Why, Andrew, there’s an investigation into an incident at NewsCorp which I know all about even if you don’t, so don’t go throwing stones. “Be careful!” Which isn’t a threat it’s just a simple statement and certainly not implying that there are countries not all that far from here where journalists are met with bullets for questioning authority.
However, it does make one wonder how lax things must be at NewsCorp when a complaint like that is mentioned in the PM’s press conference. I mean, who told him? If the Liberals can keep a sexual assault so confidential that Scott Morrison never hears about it, how did he find out about this one? Surely not gossip because he never comments on that, so it must have been official.
Still, criticising the culture at a Murdoch operation is a brave move. A very brave move.
He’ll be gone within the week!
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This poxed, perverted, polluted, preposterous, prevaricating, pustular government of political perverts and conservative crapskulls is about as christian as a pile of camel shit in Shahjah, or a Tel Aviv turd. They have no principles except excuses, deviations, coverups, propaganda, lies, more lies and then a “story”. Led by a P M, Mr. R Sole and with members like Peter Duckwit-Futton, Barnaby Ramitupem, D V Ous, and a horde of inferior nematodes, they leave us without hope, cheer, vision or results. Up ’em with a saguaro…
A flange of baboons would have more integrity, empathy,be far better at public speaking,without the necessity of Grand Theft Public Monies like the Liar and his conscience free goons.As far as policy goes, the baboons could fling shit more accurately at color coded spread sheets ,and not have to sacrifice one of the females to cover for the head baboon.His press conference this morning clearly indicates he has learned nothing,so the downward spiral continues.Shakesperean Farce come tragedy.If he genuinely wanted to do something useful for the country,his only option is to fuck right off.
yet another pathetic display of his lack of empathy, honour and reality..
the smirking tearful jerk rants his disgust at the rancid behaviour of the parliamentary staff,
belated admits to seeking advice concerning the ongoing viability of his latest problem,
turns apology to attack in an undocumented allegation against a news organisation,
then invokes the very centre of his world to ensure that we all get it
and now off to the footy or a photo shoot, having promised nothing, delivered less and alienated more voters than should be electorally healthy: how good is lying?
Scriptwriter did a great job. Buit ScoMoFo is about as convincing when attempting empathy as I would be acting the part of Genghiz Khan.
What are the odds scummo will be going on leave very soon??? The lies and obfuscation are just not working this time so the only option now is to exit, stage right.
I too wonder if shooting at News corp was a wise move. Bighting the hand that feeds is never a good story.
All the tears, all the fake empathy , all shot down with a single stupid threat. Under pressure the true colours fly.
It just seems the more he digs the more it grows, lol. The question now is , will Pinocchio’s nose grow exponentially?
This ‘prayer group’ stuff which is apparently bi-partisan, in the seat of our supposedly ‘secular democracy’, is another US import and virtue signal of piety and submission to Christianity in parliaments…..
Apparently it’s not just MPs but amongst the Canberra media corps there are also high levels of committed Christian worship, well beyond levels amongst voters…. our ‘Canberra bubble’ is more a ‘white Christian nationalist’ bubble or incubator, that seems quite disconnected from Australia….. masking a troubling lack of ethical and moral compasses.
On Morrison’s comments about or towards NewsCorp…. what was he thinking? Maybe we shall see NewsCorp et al. scrutinising evangelical Christianity and related cults of influence in politics; probably not. For now Morrison and govt. are Labor’s best assets for an election campaign that is ongoing (as they seem to be permanent).
Are they referring to the Prayer Rooms that Sam Dastyari described a couple of years ago as “the only thing the prayer room is used for is for people having sexual relations with each other?”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison replied he had ‘no idea but only someone who scrapes along the bottom of the bucket, of the chum bucket, would know that’.
Despite him being permanently inside the Canberra Bubble for about the last 17 years, what else doesn’t he know?
Apologies for the low-bar question, but in the above photo of the de-goggled marketing genius contemplating his next foray into reputation-salving, is that a real inking espied on his left upper bicep, or has he shimmied by the Indian henna tattoo parlour prior to his dip?
If anyone could answer I’d be grateful; an itch that’s sometimes scratched is the one that correlates the willingness of the person to having their skin defaced with permanent tattoos and the context within which that defacement occurs; there’s deep cultural history and there’s transient urge, reason and insanity, boofheadedness and intelligence. Is it possible the primp monster got himself inked during a night of religious mania and has here unwittingly exposed his Achilles heel? Or is it mundane… an advert (being a marketeer) for Maccas or KFC on the beach?
Andrew J. Smith, It must be my sick mind, but I did not think the ‘prayer group’ had anything to do with religion. Worship, perhaps, but not belief.
Canguro,
Scott was in an ocean swim race. it’s a number written on his arm.
https://www.theleader.com.au/story/6520691/scomo-makes-a-splash-at-cook-classic/
Christian Porter, on the other hand, DID get a star wars tattoo.
Sex in the Prayer Room? What will these oversexed, probably drunk dickheads, who proudly proclaim, they are representing ALL Australians (?) do next? Watch porn films in the Senate? Perform sex acts everywhere or anywhere? Have none of these lying, scumbags got any decency & moral decency? IT is beyond time that a Royal Commission was held into ALL the conduct of ALL the persons who work in Parliament House! Maybe, just maybe, any person accused of or admitting about any sexual misconduct–I consider rape etc as a criminal act, not “misconduct”–& any one accused of rape should automatically be stood down until proven in a court of law of their innocence. None of this “he said, she said” crap that the Dunghill was talking about, & as for Slo MO, you don’t have to rely on your wife or daughters to say what is bad & what is good! WTF is wrong with this lying, obscenely wealthy, misoginist bastard??
@ Bronte Allan… (a) he’s an LNP politician, (b) he’s transactional (i.e. his primary motivation is what’s in it for me, or ‘my gang’), (c), he’s wiling to lie, obfuscate, mislead, divert, shame-cast or deflect or mislead or deny, (d) he’s a misogynist, arguably sexist, mindlessly and testosteronely macho in the worst senses of the words, (e) he’s power drunk, unwise, unaware of the Grecian fate that awaits… the hubristic downfall, (f) he’s machiavellian and a worthy character for a Shakespearean drama (Julius Caesar? knifing? betrayal?), (g) he has a hidden past (his troubled tenure as head of Tourism Aust), (h) he’s a fantasist and a supporter of dodgy religious freaks, (i) he’s someone lacking in scruples or dignity or awareness of the responsibilities of high public office (think meat pies, beer-chugging, footy scarves, the ‘daggy dad’ schtick et al), (j) and he just doesn’t ‘get it’, despite his posturing and attempts to appear empathetic and on target, he fluffs it again and again and again… poor man, and poor Australians for having to suffer his manifestations.