Prime Minister Scott Morrison has delivered his annual address to the National Press Club, as he attempts to reset his electoral fortunes following that disastrous Newspoll. It was a dull and uninspiring speech, with the PM seemingly trying to run down the clock in order to limit the time for questions. Morrison had clearly been advised to offer up some form of contrition to disgruntled voters, though he did his usual thing of “acknowledging people’s frustrations” while never quite taking responsibility for them.

The PM used the speech to lay out his “five-point economic plan” ahead of the election, much of which constituted wholly meaningless motherhood statements about keeping taxes low and growing the economy (interestingly, five is the exact same number of vague “priorities” he delivered at last year’s NPC address).

He did however announce his two “new”, widely pre-circulated policies: an $800 bonus for desperately overworked and underpaid workers in the aged-care sector, and $2.2 billion towards “university research commercialisation” to help Australia “make stuff here” – it’s (at least) the sixth time his government has trumpeted a national manufacturing plan that never seems to go anywhere. But will any of this work on an exhausted electorate, fed up with a government that never seems to learn from its mistakes?

A large crowd of anti-vax protestors were banked up outside the press club ahead of the PM’s speech today, with truck horns blaring and chants of “remove ScoMo”. But the more searing critique came from inside the building, as journalists lined up to ask belter after belter. An attempt by NPC president Laura Tingle – whom the PM has reportedly refused to be interviewed by in the lead up to the election – to elicit a true apology from Morrison failed, unsurprisingly, with the PM only willing to say that he was “terribly sorry” for what COVID-19 had done to the world, not for any of his own catastrophic failings. Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen used his question to drop conveniently timed leaked texts between former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and a current Liberal cabinet minister, in which the PM was described as a “a horrible, horrible person”, who was more concerned with politics than people, and a “complete psycho”.

Morrison did the best he could with that one, saying that he didn’t know who van Onselen was referring to, and that he “obviously” didn’t agree with them. The question, however, prompted many to ponder why van Onselen, who yesterday admitted his controversial criticism of 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame was “probably unnecessary”, couldn’t just have been polite to the PM.

The government’s proposal of an $800 bonus for aged-care workers (rather than, say, the $5 per hour pay rise that workers and providers say is needed), had already been widely slammed ahead of Morrison’s speech, with unions labelling it “insulting” and Labor describing it as “an act of cynical politicking” (the second of the $400 payments is due to hit just before the May election). But it was further savaged by the journalists in the room. Seven’s Mark Riley wanted to know why the government wouldn’t just back the pay increase the sector was calling for – something Labor leader Anthony Albanese committed to this morning.

Morrison would only accuse Labor of not being able to cost its plans, implying such a commitment was unaffordable. Political editor Samantha Maiden had a sharp follow-up for that, wanting to know why the government was willing to pay travelling MPs $291 a night to stay in their own homes, while offering aged-care workers such a measly bonus.

Yet again, however, this was not Morrison’s responsibility: the PM told Maiden that things such as travel allowances were for someone else to decide on. Nothing, it seems, is ever Scott Morrison’s job. Whatever he considers is his job, after today’s uninspiring performance, you have to wonder how much longer he’ll keep it.

Read more:

https://www.themonthly.com.au/the-politics/rachel-withers/2022/01/2022/1643691280/eternal-blame

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BY Michael Pascoe 

Martin Luther King used the cadences, phrasing and devices of a Christian Baptist pastor to deliver soaring rhetoric; Scott Morrison took his sky pilot familiarity to the National Press Club on Tuesday for as platitudinous and dulling a sermon as you’re likely to hear.

Along the way he outbid his Defence Minister in moving closer to declaring war on China, wished he had militarised vaccines from the outset, unveiled his weaponry for the election campaign he’s already  fighting (the trusty Lee-Enfield .303), threw the Therapeutic Goods Administration under the tank tracks, and was taken down by Laura Tingle PSYOPS – mistaking the surface question for the substance, the standard experience of university psychology experiments.

As the NPC president, Tingle had the first question, a scorcher listing a few of the things that have gone wrong, from Hawaiian holiday to RATs shortage, and inviting Mr Morrison to apologise for his mistakes as Prime Minister.

On the surface, that looked like a potential “gotcha” – saying sorry could mean he had made mistakes, so he didn’t.

Instead: “We’re all terribly sorry for what this pandemic has done to the world and to this country.”

See, it was COVID’s fault. And from there it was into a word salad of deflection.

But that wasn’t the substance of the question. What was really asked was whether Mr Morrison could accept responsibility for mistakes and genuinely apologise for them.

It’s at the core of the increasingly frequent criticism of Mr Morrison that, while he’s happy to declare “I’m the Prime Minister” on occasion, he never owns responsibility for what goes wrong or is wrong.

From #sportsrorts to RATs, it is always someone else’s responsibility, someone else’s fault – or he just lies about it.

For example, on the vaccination program, there was only one apparent regret: “If I had my time over, I would have put it under a military operation from the outset and not later in the year.”

See, nothing to do with not ordering enough doses of the right type, to it not being a race, just civilians not being as good as brass in moving pharmaceuticals.

On RATs: “The rapid antigen tests had only actually been approved for use by the TGA earlier in November” – ah, all the fault of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, blame the TGA, the government has nothing to apologise for.

But that ignores what the TGA was saying back in September, as reported by The Guardian and repeated on these pages before:

Part of the issue has been the slow pace of approvals with the TGA. In September TGA boss John Skerritt admitted that had been deliberate, as the regulator waited for a “signal” from the federal government.

“We’re saying to companies, submit your data, show us, but we can’t formally make an approval decision until we get a signal from the government,” Professor Skerritt said at the time.

“It’s a decision for the government. Firstly, when they feel an appropriate time is to commit such tests. But then secondly, we’ve got to have the tests that are actually ready to go and designed so they can be used by non-professional people.”

That was already well after employers, unions and plenty of health experts started calling for RATs.

And then there is the ongoing aged-care crisis and Mr Morrison’s promise of two $400 “retention” payments for miserably paid aged-care workers.

Samantha Maiden contrasted those payments with what MPs pocket as a Canberra allowance – $291 a night. MPs get more for a three-night stay in Canberra, often in their own home, than the total bonus for over-stretched aged-care workers on not much more than the minimum wage.

Well, it worked last time the government did it, Mr Morrison said. “And it has been done in consultation with the industry” – so it’s the industry’s fault.

It certainly wasn’t done in consultation with the workers.

But for the bigger question of why the government wouldn’t agree with Labor’s suggestion to intervene before the Fair Work Commission and argue for better pay for aged-care workers, Mr Morrison (metaphorically) pulled out his .303, the Empire and Commonwealth rifle through two world wars and Korea: “I’ve noticed the suggestion made by the Leader of the Opposition. I haven’t heard how he proposes to fund that. I don’t know what he estimates the cost of that will be. And how he would work that through. So that’s for him to explain, as to how he can pay for the things he tells Australians he thinks he can do.”

Yes, the old “where’s the money’s coming from” shot. It takes remarkable hide for the trillion-dollar-debt-PM to ask the question, but it’s standard .303 issue.

The “three-oh” had five bullets in its magazine. That shot is naturally followed by the unsubstantiated allegation that the Liberal Party is lower taxing than Labor and the simply nonsensical claim that the Morrison government would “keep downward pressure” on inflation and interest rates. (It’s doing no such thing and wouldn’t want to at present.)

With two shots left, Mr Morrison took aim at China, “a direct threat to Australia’s economic and security interests”, the biggest thing since Nazi Germany preparing for World War II.

Never mind that the new Chinese ambassador had perhaps offered what might have been a leaf from an olive branch, Mr Morrison showed he could warmonger with the best – or worst – in an election campaign.

Anything Peter Dutton can do, it seems Mr Morrison has to try to match.

And finally, the last shot in his speech: “It requires experience … It’s not a time to have an each-way bet on Australia’s future.”

The old “don’t risk it” line, the argument that only the government is safe to be the government.

So with the covering fire of a $16 billion election fund and unprecedented experience in rorting and corrupting grants schemes, Mr Morrison unveiled an election campaign as ancient as the .303.

It was a reliable old weapon, but also limited and no longer fit for purpose.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2022/02/02/michael-pascoe-scott-morrison-declares-war/

We've already mentioned that ScoMoooooo's Press Club address was preaching alla 1956 Billy Graham style of dumping unrealities on inadequately educated but indoctrinated people (a press club bullshit preaching...). A decent sociopath would have taken the bullet and apologised for the bullshit endured by the public and moved on to do MORE of the usual political/sociopathic tricks. But Scomo isn't a decent sociopath. He will blame everyone/everything else till the "cows come home" — and do more of "his" tricks at the same time...

And please, give the fat man Clive Palmer a wide berth. His "freedom" catch phrase is designed for him to be free of any social conscience, while you, the decent public, is transformed into a Nuremberg crowd... You know what I mean...

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