The Four Corners episode Scott Morrison didn’t want you to see went to air on Monday night, and it shed light on how a family friend of the PM became swept up in the QAnon conspiracy theory and even boasted about having influence over Morrison.
Tim Stewart had been a family friend of Morrison since the 90s. He and his wife regularly hung out at Kirribilli house (where his wife was even employed as a helper), the two families went on holidays together, and Morrison had even posted on Stewart’s Facebook recently.
However on Four Corners, Stewart’s mum, sister and other families members came forward to share how he had become consumed by the discredited QAnon conspiracy theory that former US President Donald Trump is somehow saving the world from a cabal of elite, child-eating pedophiles. In Stewart’s eyes, anyone who hadn’t hopped aboard the QAnon train was a pedophile enabler.
“Tim believes that the world has really been taken over by Satanic pedophiles, or Luciferian pedophiles,” his sister Karen Stewart told the program.
“I don’t understand why the PM would want to be seen to be with someone who has such radical beliefs.”
We knew this much already, and Morrison has already shot down any suggestion that he shares the beliefs of this particular family friend.
Earlier in June, while the ABC had reportedly delayed the controversial episode from being aired, Morrison addressed the allegations.
“I find it deeply offensive there would be any suggestion I would have any involvement or support for such a dangerous organisation. I clearly do not,” he told reporters in Canberra on June 4.
“It is just also disappointing that Four Corners in their inquiries would seek to cast this aspersion, not just against me but by members of my own family.
Didn’t think there was a worse version of an apology than “I’m sorry you feel that way”, but using an official apology to survivors of institutional abuse to give a cheeky wink to QAnon … might be it. #4Corners
— Benjamin Law 羅旭能 (@mrbenjaminlaw) June 14, 2021
The bombshell that Four Corners ended up dropping on Monday night was that Stewart boasted about his supposed influence over Morrison.
Stewart even pointed to one particular incident where the PM – knowingly or unknowingly, coincidentally or otherwise – dropped a major QAnon dog whistle in a speech.
DMs seen by Four Corners showed Stewart boasting that he could get the Prime Minister to use the words “ritual sexual abuse” in his 2018 National Apology to the Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.
The idea of “ritual sexual abuse” is part of the QAnon belief that global elites sexually abuse, cannibalise and sacrifice children in weird Satanic rituals. It has nothing to do with survivors of actual sexual abuse.
Ultimately, Morrison did use that very phrase in his apology, although it was too subtle for many of us to notice at the time. That didn’t stop Stewart from later commenting on Twitter that Morrison using the term showed that he recognised the QAnon conspiracy theorists.
While the Prime Minister’s Office didn’t respond to questions about this term on the record, Four Corners pointed to a previously-issued statement on the matter.
“The term ‘ritual’ is one that the Prime Minister heard directly from the abuse survivors and the National Apology to Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Reference Group he met with in the lead up to the Apology and refers not just to the ritualised way or pattern in which so many crimes were committed but also to the frequency and repetition of them,” a spokesperson had previously said.
The idea that the apology to victims of child sexual abuse in institutions was changed to give support to QAnon conspiracy of “ritual sexual abuse” is disgraceful. Victims and survivors deserve so much better than this. #4Corners
— David Shoebridge (@DavidShoebridge) June 14, 2021
Beyond that, a spokesperson for the PM since told News.com.au on Tuesday that “the government will not be responding to the baseless conspiracy theories being peddled by Four Corners.”
It’s nevertheless a pretty startling coincidence, even if the government denies any actual connection.
You can watch the full Four Corners episode, which includes a clip of Morrison using the QAnon dog whistle in the Apology, here.
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