Comment

Scott Morrison has gone to great lengths to give his overall Covid-19 response an air of respectability by claiming to be acting on the basis of the science – ignoring his political manipulation of that advice and suggesting this is done with the overarching support of the national cabinet.

If you think a day is a long time in politics, try a week. This one started with Scott Morrison showing off his massive barramundi. It finished with Australia’s uncontrolled Omicron outbreak likely finishing off his government’s chance of re-election.

The darkest months in detention are always December and January. In these months, from the windows of our rooms at the Park Hotel, we see people celebrating with their loved ones another year that we’re away from ours.

This week, Danish politician Inger Støjberg was sentenced to two months in prison for illegally ordering the separation of migrant couples. This is an extraordinary form of accountability. It is more remarkable, however, when you consider Støjberg’s policies were substantially modelled on Australia’s.

Do not be surprised if Scott Morrison attempts a similar format in the coming election campaign; what I call a ‘trust and fear’ strategy. Essentially, Morrison will pose the question to voters, ‘Who do you trust to manage the pandemic and our economic recovery and more broadly your personal and our national security?’

This week Scott Morrison was given a lesson in the sort of diplomacy needed to deal with China, the bully that also happens to be our biggest trading partner. It was a jarring reminder, on the cusp of an election year, that the almost decade-old Coalition government is no longer fit for purpose.

It has been nine months since tens of thousands of people across 40 cities in Australia joined the ‘March 4 Justice’ rallies on March 15. We were motivated by the myriad gendered injustices we’d seen and experienced in our lives, but catalysed very specifically by the horrific stories emerging from Parliament House.

The report is about media diversity, which in Australia means it is about Rupert Murdoch. Most strikingly, it recommends a judicial inquiry into the media with the powers of a royal commission. Again, because this is Australia, it means a royal commission into Rupert Murdoch.

Surprisingly to many, the Coalition has consistently maintained its poll lead over Labor on the question of who would be ‘preferred economic managers’. Although there are a host of other issues that will feature in the coming election campaign – most relating to questions of integrity, accountability and climate change – Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg will undoubtedly seek to run on economic management.

Three years after winning the leadership, the reality is setting in about Scott Morrison. The chance of him winning again are slimmer than before. The idea that he is a government unifier and a change from Malcolm Turnbull has shifted. The photo opportunities aren’t cutting through anymore.