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Scott Morrison is completely out of touch

Many of us were disenchanted with Malcolm Turnbull, but Scott Morrison is completely wrong about why.

The majority of the population agreed with Turnbull’s previous statements about climate change, renewable energy, marriage equality, the Republic, the negative affects of overly-generous property tax concessions, the perils of political donations, the need for state-of-the-art communications etc.

Our disappointment stemmed from his backflips on these issues precipitated by the apparent stranglehold on the party by a few noisy anachronistic men who yearn for the days when women were content with silent domestic servitude and one’s connections, rather than one’s ability, offered opportunity. Dishonourable mention should also be made of the few women aboard the gravy train who enable these throwbacks by their complicit silence.

Morrison, after an ugly coup very reminiscent of how he originally won preselection, immediately tells us his priorities are the drought and reducing power prices, no doubt as payback to the Nationals for signing the agreement that keeps him in government (like the Nats would ever jeopardise their over-represented position at the table).

Yet his first action is to kill off any action on climate change and to throw the growing renewable energy sector into uncertainty once again, actively working against the mechanisms that would achieve his stated goals.

In the annual Lowy Institute Poll on Australian attitudes to the world and global issues for 2018, 59% of respondents agreed with the statement: “climate change is a serious and pressing problem. We should begin taking steps now even if this involves significant costs.”

This represents an increase of 5 percentage points from 2017, and a consistent increase in support for this statement over the past six years.

While the federal government pretend to pursue a “technology-neutral” energy policy, public support for a large-scale energy transition in Australia is even more emphatic than support for climate action.

According to the Lowy poll, 84% of Australians support the statement that “the government should focus on renewables, even if this means we may need to invest more in infrastructure to make the system more reliable.”

But it’s not just climate change and energy policy where the Morrison government is unrepresentative of community attitudes.

Scott Morrison, along with several of his colleagues, couldn’t bring themselves to vote for marriage equality despite overwhelming community support for it.

He has refused to release the report from Philip Ruddock on religious freedom but has intimated that, even though he can’t point to any actual concerns, he will introduce legislation to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.

He vaguely talks about parents having a choice about the values their children are taught which we all know is the religious dog whistle about the Safe Schools program.

If Mr Morrison has convinced himself that there is no bullying problem in his party, it’s perhaps not surprising that he cannot understand the bullying that goes on in schools and the request from teachers for resources to help them discuss respectful relationships and tolerance and understanding of diversity.

The majority of Australians support euthanasia and legal abortions, but not our Scott and the unrepresentative preponderance of religious people in our parliament.

While every economist is telling us that wage stagnation is a real problem, Scott keeps telling us that all will be well if businesses make more profits, once again completely out of tune with the community and out of touch with the reality of soaring company profits which have not translated to wage rises.

Scott also keeps telling us they are keeping us safe by spending hundreds of billions on war materiel, terrorism stuff, and keeping asylum seekers locked up, yet he pays lip service to domestic violence, not understanding that the behaviour of politicians is a shocking example of the belittling intimidation that accompanies such violence. He seems more worried about keeping us safe from strawberries than from the trauma that is a part of too many Australian’s lives.

He tells us he leads a united party who wants a united country. We may be apathetic and weary of political shenanigans but that is just impossible to accept from the man who “sees votes in anti-Muslim strategy” and who happily just knifed a sitting Prime Minister for no reason he can articulate.

Shutting down parliament, refusing to go to the Pacific leader’s forum, cancelling the scheduled COAG meeting, and leaving the Senate with no legislation to discuss, does not engender hope that they are getting on with governing.

It seems more like they are fine-tuning their slogans and their shouty attack of it all being Labor’s fault.

 

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31 comments

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  1. Mr Shevill Mathers

    It won’t be long and many of these troglodytes will be gone at the next election, however, in the meantime, Morrison et al. can continue to do more damage and take Australia backwards at warp speed.

  2. Kronomex

    On a side note: I’m not holding my breath about the censure motion on The Potato passing, although it’s a wonderful thought. The religious nutter in charge won’t, and can’t allow, it to go ahead.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/19/peter-dutton-risks-no-confidence-motion-after-report-finds-he-misled-parliament

    Morrison – the horrifying genetic mutation made up from the DNA of Trump and Pence with a bit of Maggie Thatcher thrown in for good measure.

  3. New England Cocky

    Why does AIMN put a picture of Scat Moriscum on every available article? In the header, 3/4 Scat pics … yuk!!

    The result of this photographic pollution is that the MOrriscum face becomes best known, and absolute essential in politics.

    Do Australia a favour and keep pics of Morriscum off AIMN articles. Stand up for the unrepresented refugees on Manus and corrupt Nauru by posting a picture of the damage Morriscum policies are doing to people and Australia. There are certainly enough subjects around.

  4. Kaye Lee

    NEC,

    I think the more exposure Promo gets, the sillier he looks. He has already done an interview with the New York Times……

    “But there is someone — at the very bottom of the world in the land of Mad Max — who wants to play ball with the Mad King. In the Trump era, we can rewrite the maxim to be: If you want a friend in politics, get an Aussie.

    “I think we both get it,” Australia’s new prime minister, Scott Morrison, cheerily told me in his office in Parliament House. Even though Australia did not get rocked by a recession like the U.S. did, Morrison says some people feel forgotten, left off the globalism gravy train. “And that’s what we get. The president gets that. I get it.”

    ScoMo, as the Antipodean prime minister is nicknamed, was not particularly well known but had clearly had his skates laced up for some time. He got off to a fast start, flying to Indonesia to negotiate a trade deal; visiting the outback to spotlight his focus on the drought (even though he absurdly told me about climate change that “I just don’t think it’s relevant to the discussion about how we’re helping farmers” and urged drought victims to “pray for that rain”); and vowing to pass a religious freedom bill in determinedly secular Australia, where Pentecostals are commonly referred to as “happy clappers.”

    It’s apparent that he doesn’t know Trump yet, describing him as “very practical” and someone “who’s not going to waste a day.”

    “I like that about him,” enthused Morrison, who is obviously ready to do the Aussie equivalent of the Saudi sword dance. “I like that about him a lot, actually.’’

    If you haven’t seen Trump doing the Saudi sword dance it’s worth it

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2017/may/21/trump-joins-ceremonial-sword-dance-in-saudi-arabia-video

  5. Lawrence S. Roberts

    While we will all breath a sigh of relief when this mob is gone, will we usher in ‘neo-liberal light’?

    Labor have waived through this parliament some draconian secrecy laws, have refused to be wedged on several issues including Adani Carmichael and renewable energy which leaves this collegiate style of management vunerable to be twisted into piecemeal deals.

    I may be wrong, the election win could be so large in The Senate that some old socialist dreams could be introduced. This could be Gough, Mk. 2. I live in hope.

  6. Kyran

    Out of touch? If you’ll pardon the profanity at this hour of the day, this Shouty McShoutyface muppet is fecking delusional.
    Some interesting snippets from the NY article are now being recirculated, including this muppets celebration of ‘stopping the boats’.

    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/i-stopped-these-pm-s-boat-trophy-gains-international-notoriety

    The ABF and the current Minister of Misery, Dutton, have repeatedly stated in senate committee’s that the boats have never been stopped. The NY article also referenced the manner of his ascendency mirroring that of Bradbury, which is apt if you consider that Bradbury’s strategy was to deliberately compensate due to his unsuitability to race in the first place!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Bradbury

    All of this also conveniently ignores the deaths occurring on his watch and subsequently.

    https://arts.monash.edu/social-sciences/border-crossing-observatory/australian-border-deaths-database/

    Many suitably qualified groups have tried to appeal to these muppets and their sense of Christian fairness. An obvious mistake, given these muppets only practice Christianity, and even then it’s only for an hour a week. Today’s appellants are the AMA.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/20/ama-president-calls-for-urgent-transfer-of-refugee-families-from-nauru

    This delusional Shouty McShoutyface muppet is reputed to speak in tongues. There aren’t too many left that don’t concede all of the tongues are forked. Out of touch? He has suspended scheduled government in preference for a series of talk fests, though only his god knows which forked tongue will prevail. He has convened a special drought summit, including his special envoy for drought. Seriously? Will the summit confirm or deny there is a drought? It’s fecking delusional.
    His Bradbury competition is under threat.

    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/au-pair-inquiry-reveals-dutton-misled-the-parliament

    So these muppets marshal the considerable might of the Australian Berry Force to challenge the existential threat posed by 100 errant strawberries.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-09-19/strawberry-growers-claim-government-causing-hysteria-needle/10282070?WT.ac=statenews_nsw

    With such a serious distraction to our Broader Farce, won’t the people smugglers reinvent their strategy, redoubling their efforts to import illicit strawberries? Good dog! They may even try and hide some asylum seekers in their newly reinvigorated strategy. If this bunch of muppets can’t find a needle in a strawberry, a much smaller objective than a needle in a haystack, they may well miss the occasional asylum seeker in a pile of strawberries.
    Out of touch? Nah. He’s fecking delusional. Giving a microphone to delusional muppets does not help them get over their delusions, nor does it auger well for the broader community. The NY article also references the orange idiot the Americans are suffering under, who is also incorrectly believed to be out of touch. That is giving them way too much credit, when they should simply be put in a corner and ignored.
    Apologies for the rant, but he’s not out of touch.
    Thank you Ms Lee and commenters. Take care.

  7. Kronomex

    This is anything but “laughable”, it’s disgusting and sickening –

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/20/laughable-2-newstart-increase-wont-help-with-cost-of-living-unemployed-say

    Says the ambulatory pile of vomit –

    “In a statement last week announcing the payments were increasing, the social services minister, Paul Fletcher, said they were indexed to “help people keep up with increases in living costs”.”
    ““The Australian government wants a sustainable welfare system that supports the most vulnerable, encourages those capable of work or study to do so, and reduces intergenerational welfare dependency,” he told Guardian Australia in a statement.”

    In other words, peasants and scum should know their place and be thankful we barons give them any money at all.

  8. John Lord

    Totally agree Kaye. Couldn’t be more correct. The second article I ever wrote for THE AIMN was on this subject and nothing has changed since.

    Australia does not,at this time, have a clearly articulated and legislated policy on climate change. Why.

    September 20 2014

  9. DrakeN

    Out of touch – but firmly in the grasp of the likes of Kerry Stokes and Rupert Murdoch.

  10. Max Gross

    Pastor Morrison makes Monsignor Abbott seem intelligent…

  11. George Theodoridis

    Alas! Well said, Kaye.

    This is not a gang of political conservatives, though political conservatives are not at all my favourite gang, it is a gang of cave dwellers, troglodytes as Shevill Mathers called them. They practice bunker politics whereby they shoot bombs of poo into the air and then rush into their bunker to be clear of the fall. We, of course do not live in bunkers and some of us live in the open air or in cars, thanks to their bombs.

    Oh and how hilarious the dance of the sword-loving clowns! Thanks, again Kaye. One walks around bedazzled by such visions. Does one laugh or does one cry?

  12. Kronomex

    His inner dictator and religious zealotry is beginning to manifest more openly and will only become more pronounced as the time for the election looms.

  13. kerri

    Sadly, Kaye Lee, so are a lot of voters. (Out of touch)
    I gritted my teeth and steeled myself to the frustration and then followed, (against all my better instincts) ScoMo on facebook. And he actually does have his page as ScoMo. 🤮.
    So many comments about how he is a real everyday person?
    Someone just like them. So normal. So approachable.
    The media really need to up their exposures of him being nasty like the “f*cking mendicant” comment.
    Clearly there a lot of registered voters out there who haven’t looked close enough at this entirely inappropriate PM.

  14. Kaye Lee

    kerri,

    Despite his concern about free speech, Promo banned me from his facebook page back when he was Immigration Minister and I kept posting stories about asylum seekers, so I would suggest the sycophants who are allowed to comment there are not representative of the broader community. They have mobilised the far right religious groups to actively campaign for Scott.

    Pastor Adam F Thompson from Voice of Fire Ministries and Adrian Beale from Everrest Ministries told a congregation of Hope City Church that Morrison’s elevation to power was divinely inspired.

    “The Lord woke me up at 4.30am this morning,” Thompson told the Hope City Church congregation.

    “This is a crucial time right now … In the next six months it’s time for the body of Christ [the Christian church] to put its differences aside … and come together and agree that Jesus is the Messiah and start praying together and calling it in and praying for our prime minister right now, and for our government.

    “I really see that the body of Christ is going to have influence in the arena of – the political arena of this nation.

    “[But] if the prime minister right now doesn’t get elected in this next election there’s going to be darkness coming. And I’m not being negative. The laws are going to change where darkness is going to come and there will be persecution on the church.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/07/darkness-coming-if-scott-morrison-not-re-elected-pentecostal-leader-claims

    Truly terrifying indeed!

  15. Christopher J Ward

    I’m one of the minority then. I don’t like ScoMo and Co. but you can’t make an unsubstantiated claim “about climate change, renewable energy, marriage equality, the Republic, the negative affects of overly-generous property tax concessions, the perils of political donations, the need for state-of-the-art communications etc.” Hitler made ambit claims, so too Stalin and now Trump.

  16. Kaye Lee

    Christopher,

    I can substantiate nearly all of those.

    Climate change and Renewables – Malcolm Turnbull speech at the 2010 zero Carbon Australia launch

    Republic – 2012 George Winterton lecture “Republican virtues – truth, leadership and responsibility.”

    https://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/republican-virtues-truth-leadership-and-responsibility

    In his 2005 tax policy paper, Malcolm Turnbull described negative gearing and the CGT discount as a “sheltering tax haven” that is “skewing national investment away from wealth-creating pursuits, towards housing”, and has caused a “property bubble”. Turnbull also acknowledged that “Australia’s rules on negative gearing are very generous compared to many other countries” and that “the normal deductibility principles do not apply to negatively geared real estate such that the taxpayer is not obliged to demonstrate that the negatively geared property will generate positive cash flow at some point in the distant future”.

    http://docplayer.net/10312899-Taxation-reform-in-australia-some-alternatives-and-indicative-costings.html

    Marriage equality

    The reality is that Tony Abbott and my position on gay marriage is very close. Both of us believe the party room should decide whether there should be a free vote, a “conscience vote”, so-called – and I have no doubt that if a private member’s bill comes up, I’ve got no doubt the party room will decide there will be a free vote: that is actually the long-standing Liberal tradition.

    http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/patients-call-for-medical-marijuana-legalisation/6278360

    Political donations

    in an email to a Greens Woollahra councillor in February 2005, Malcolm Turnbull wrote that he believes “no political donations should be allowed unless they are: from citizens and/or persons on the electoral roll (ie, no companies, unions, associations etc); subject to a cap; and donors should certify that the donation is either their own or their spouse’s money and has not been given to them by a third party”.

    https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/why-malcolm-turnbull-must-act-on-national-political-donations-reform-20151104-gkqekf.html

    Not so sure about the state-of-the-art communications. He invested in fibre overseas but did not push for it here. I don’t quite get the last sentence. Are you comparing me or Turnbull to Hitler, Stalin and Trump?? Whichever way, I don’t get it.

  17. Matters Not

    Give Morrison his due. Apparently, he has outbid Labor when it comes to funding Catholic schools – or at least he is claiming to.

    Now who started this bidding war? (Talk about dumb. Predictable and predicted years ago.) And as I watch the Press Conference I hear the same bullshit arguments I’ve heard for decades.

  18. helvityni

    Matters Not, feel free to give Morrison his due…

    It’s fine if you want some truck-driving brmm brmm bloke at the helm….look, he’s just like my grandson, loves McDonalds…he’s one of us…

    I want someone better than me…(not that I’m that bad)…

  19. helvityni

    To laugh or to cry ? George asks above…

    Well, watching the news, I’m angry and teary…

    When Shawn Micallef retells the week’s happenings, I laugh…

  20. Kyran

    “This is a crucial time right now … In the next six months it’s time for the body of Christ [the Christian church] to put its differences aside … and come together and agree that Jesus is the Messiah and start praying together and calling it in and praying for our prime minister right now, and for our government.”
    With respect Ms Lee, there were some typo’s. At the risk of sounding pedantic, these good Christians preyed and preyed and preyed for divine intervention. At the end of the day, at about the same time as the pending darkness, NewsCorpse permitted Devine intervention. She has been pursing her lipsticked lips and blowing smoke up this pigs arse ever since.
    The rest, as they say, is history.
    Whether it was a genuine typo or yet another involuntary vowel movement will be left up to the allseeing higher bean – Murdoch.
    Thanks again, with apologies for the pedantry. Take care

  21. Zathras

    The “darkness coming” threat is straight out of the Trump evangelical supporters playbook.

    Over there they insist that Trump was “chosen by God” and so “opposition to Trump is opposition to God Himself” and that all the bushfires, hurricanes and natural disasters are God’s way of warning us of what’s to come if Trump is resisted in implementing “His plan”.

    Furthermore, Trump protesters are “demon possessed” and Hillary is a satanic witch from a secret group that ritually sexually abuses, murders and eats children.

    And so on.

    It takes a special kind of crazy to allege such things but even worse is the idea that some people accept these things as fact.
    Their political influence is a lot like the Taliban in Afghanistan.

    I wonder where Morrison stands on “the End Times” and his role in bringing them about.

    Meanwhile the Liberal Party is crumbling after years under the influence of “The NSW Uglies” and more recently the control of the Young Liberals and their Opus Dei influenced leadership.

    Crazy times are ahead.

  22. wam

    Out of touch?
    He tweets so does trump
    he uses FIGJAM a la trump
    he dismisses billy and labor like trump and friends dismiss obama and democrats, not with trump brutality but with smooth derision
    he supports his successful women who got there by their own efforts, they have rallied to his side and farewelled those who cannot stand the heat.
    He has addressed the drought by taking it from the media, by saving us from the needling fruit crooks with a serious 15 years gaol.
    he has seen billy off as PM and regained the catholic vote,
    he has dismissed any chance of capital gains reform
    he has only 87000 followers to shorten’s 186000 trumps 54m and obama 100m but that will grow with use,
    perhaps he has never been in touch with that which we consider ‘touch’?
    The voters hear and see his touch on the morning show with karl baby and fox is full of support. Morrison, courtesy of the voters who think he is ion touch, is on track for exchanging leadership tweets next year?

  23. Kaye Lee

    Morrison’s church believes that “the Bible is God’s Word. It is accurate, authoritative and applicable to our every day lives.”

    They believe that “speaking in tongues” is the “initial evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit.”

    They believe in “divine healing”, trusting “our heavenly Father to protect and heal our bodies from sickness and disease”.

    They “believe that the heavens and earth and all original life forms, including humanity, were made by the specific immediate creative acts of God as described in the account of origins presented in Genesis, and that all biological changes which have occurred since creation are limited to variation within each species.”

    https://www.acc.org.au/about-us/doctrinal-basis/

    Are these the Australian Christian values that Scott wants taught to our children?

  24. David Bruce

    Is the good ship Australia heading to the ice bergs on its voyage to the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030? Our government, like the crew of the Titanic, seem to be more concerned with re-arranging the deck chairs than navigating a safe passage! After learning why our Defence Forces are active in Syria, I realize our Government is focused on the needs of their patrons rather than the needs of the Australian people. Malcolm Turnbull, like Gough Whitlam, has experienced the impact of powerful forces controlling the media, banking systems, intelligence agencies and the petroleum industry in Australia. His recent comments on ABC were very revealing, specifically his conversation with Rupert Murdoch about the role Murdoch media played in Turbull’s downfall. Next will be the effects of the US trade war with China and Australia will lose billions in export earnings. Does anybody in the media or politics really care what happens to the people of Australia. I get the feeling we are targets because we missed out on the full impact of the Global Financial Crisis, so we are being directed to a rerun in 2019. Screw the evil schemers and let karma prevail and the Lucky Country thrive!

  25. Diannaart

    @David Bruce

    Here’s a transcript:

    Malcolm has got to go,” Mr Murdoch told Mr Stokes, according to multiple re-tellings of the conversation, relayed back to Mr Turnbull by Mr Stokes.

    Mr Stokes told Mr Murdoch that rolling Mr Turnbull would deliver government to Labor, that the industrial relations landscape would see the likes of the CFMEU thrive.

    Mr Murdoch’s reply? One version, told to the ABC, is that Mr Murdoch told Mr Stokes:

    “We have got to get rid of Malcolm. If that’s the price of getting rid of him then I can put up with three years of Labor.”
    A remarkably similar version was told to the Australian Financial Review. In it, Mr Murdoch told Mr Stokes: “They’ll only be in for three years — it won’t be so bad. I did alright under Labor and the Painters and Dockers; I can make money under Shorten and the CFMEU.”

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/liberal-leadership-spill-rupert-murdoch-kerry-stokes-influence/10262552

    ProMo is looking more and more like an historical footnote.

    All just a big game of monopoly to these excessively powerful old men.

  26. Patagonian

    Great analysis Rossleigh. That photo – he looks like an intellectually challenged Billy Bunter.

  27. Patagonian

    Kaye Lee – I think, like many happy clappers I have met, that they think SOME of the bible is God’s word (i.e. the bits that suit them). The rest of it, not so much.

  28. Matters Not

    Yes Morrison’s mob seem weird. Unlike another denomination that support the Real Presence, i.e. the reality of the bread is changed into that of the body of Christ. (Shakes head.)

    And those who ‘teach’ that nonsense just received billions of extra dollars under the banner of education.

  29. Kaye Lee

    Yes the Catholics doggedly hold on to transubstantiation, worship of the Virgin Mary, and enforced celibacy (cough) as real brand differences from those degenerate Protestants.

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